Fungal secondary metabolites have historically provided important applications in a variety of industries. Penicillium camemberti, a fungus with a role in cheese production, was domesticated to food use partly due to its metabolically depleted characteristic, minimizing the risk of toxic compound formation. However, antiSMASH analysis of the genome reveals that strains of the species do contain various cryptic biosynthetic gene clusters and, thus, have the potential capability of producing multiple secondary metabolites despite its limited compound production under normal laboratory conditions. Here, we genetically engineered Penicillium camemberti strain IMV00769, which is genetically similar to cheese-making isolates, by deleting negative global regulator, mcrA. This deletion resulted in the production of secondary metabolites not previously produced by this strain, including fumigermin, a compound patented for cosmetic applications for the reduction of skin wrinkles, enhancement of skin elasticity, and skin whitening. Our findings highlight the power of global regulator manipulation to activate cryptic biosynthetic pathways and expand the range of natural products accessible from domesticated fungal strains.
Shyong et al. (Wed,) studied this question.