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ARS Home » Pacific West Area » Albany, California » Western Regional Research Center » Foodborne Toxin Detection and Prevention Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #333091
Research Project: Biocontrol Interventions for High-Value Agricultural Commodities

Location: Foodborne Toxin Detection and Prevention Research

Title: Genome sequencing and analyses of the postharvest fungus Penicillium expansum R21

Author
item YIN, GUOHUA - Rutgers University
item ZHANG, YULIANG - Key Laboratory Of Textile Science & Technology
item Hua, Sui Sheng
item Yu, Jiujiang
item BU, LIJING - Key Laboratory Of Textile Science & Technology
item PENNERMAN, KAYLA - Rutgers University
item HUANG, QIXING - Key Laboratory Of Textile Science & Technology
item GUO, ANPING - Key Laboratory Of Textile Science & Technology
item BENNETT, JOAN - Rutgers University

Submitted to: Genome Announcements
Publication Type: Research Notes
Publication Acceptance Date: 12/11/2016
Publication Date: 2/16/2017
Citation: Yin, G., Zhang, Y., Hua, S.T., Yu, J., Bu, L., Pennerman, K.K., Huang, Q., Guo, A., Bennett, J.W. 2017. Genome sequencing and analyses of the postharvest fungus Penicillium expansum R21. Genome Announcements. 5:e01516-16 https://doi.org/10.1128/genomeA.01516-16.

Interpretive Summary: Penicillium expansum causes an economically serious postharvest decay of fruits and is known as “blue mold” in reference to the abundant blue-green spores produced by this species and several other Penicillium species that cause the disease. P. expansum also produces patulin, a mycotoxin that can contaminate apple juice and other apple products which is regulated by the U.S. Food and Drug Adminstration, the European Union and other regulatory agencies. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations has reported that about one fourth of the world’s food crops are contaminated with mycotoxins every year. Very little is known about the genetic basis of the infection, pathogenicity, toxigenicity and virulence of penicillia. In order to explore the possible fungal virulence factors and to devise novel strategies for the mitigation of mycotoxin contamination in fruits, we report the genome of the wild type P. expansum strain R21, which produces patulin during fruit infection.

Technical Abstract: Blue mold is the vernacular name of a common postharvest disease of stored apples, pears and quince that is caused by several common species of Penicillium. This study reports the draft genome sequence of Penicillium expansum strain R21, a strain isolated from a Red Delicious apple in 2011 in Pennsylvania. Based on the 17 k-mer statistical analysis, the estimated genome size of P.expansum R21 was 34 Mb. The G-C content of the genome was 48.29%.Preliminary annotation results indicate that the P. expansum R21 contains 13,065 predicted genes, with an average length of 2,660 bp. The gene total length (all the coding sequences) is 18,938,751 bp, which is 54.5% of the whole genome. Approximately 386 kb of repeated regions are found, accounting for 1.11% of the genome size.