Integrative Metabolomic and Transcriptomic Analyses Uncover Metabolic Alterations and Pigment Diversity in Monascus in Response to Different Nitrogen Sources

Natural MPs containing a mixture of red, orange, and yellow pigments are widely used as food coloring agents. MP diversity provides foods with versatile colors and health benefits but, in turn, complicate efforts to achieve maximum yield or desirable combination of pigments during the manufacturing process. Apart from the MP biosynthetic gene cluster, interactions between the main biosynthetic pathways and other intracellular genes/metabolites are critical to our understanding of MP differentiation. The integrative multiomics analytical strategy provides a technical platform and new perspectives for the identification of metabolic shunting mechanisms in MP biosynthesis. Equally, our research highlights the influence of intracellular metabolic alterations on MP differentiation, which will facilitate the rational engineering and optimization of MP production in the future.