Enhancement of Perylenequinonoid Compounds Production from Strain of Pseudoshiraia conidialis by UV-Induced Mutagenesis

Perylenequinonoid compounds, represented by photosensitive therapeutic agents such as hypocrellins and elsinochromes, demonstrate extensive potential across biomedical, agricultural, and food industrial applications. Nevertheless, their restricted biosynthesis remains a critical bottleneck for commercial exploitation. This study implemented UV mutagenesis to enhance perylenequinone production in fungal strains of Pseudoshiraia conidialis, achieving significant yield improvements at the 120 J/m2 and 150 J/m2 irradiation intensities. Through systematic optimization of the HPLC analytical platform, we established the precise quantification of five distinct perylenequinonoid derivatives: hypocrellin A, hypocrellin B, shiraiachrome A, elsinochrome A, and elsinochrome B. The mutant strain Z2-1 demonstrated a remarkable biosynthetic capacity with the total perylenequinonoid yields reaching 2101.6 mg/L, representing a 705.70% enhancement over the parental strain zzz816 (260.84 mg/L). Particularly noteworthy was the hyperproduction of hypocrellin A at 1100.7 mg/L, corresponding to a 1208.02% increase from the baseline yield (84.15 mg/L). Furthermore, this work reports the first successful generation of an elsinochrome A-overproducing strain, achieving a 312.68 mg/L output (429.25% increase from 59.08 mg/L). Intriguingly, different mutant strains exhibited distinct production profiles for specific compounds, revealing biosynthetic preference variations among derivatives. These findings emphasize the necessity for comprehensive metabolite profiling during fermentation process optimization to maximize the target compound yields.