Talaromyces atroroseus is a member of the genus Talaromyces that primarily contains saprophytic fungi and includes medically and industrially relevant species, such as the opportunistic human pathogen Talaromyces marneffei (formerly Penicillium marneffei), and species with high production of cellulolytic enzymes, such as Talaromyces cellulolyticus. Talaromyces atroroseus is a known producer of red and yellow water-soluble polyketide pigments related to monascorubrin, ankaflavin, rubropuctatin and their derivatives known from Monascus species. These colorants are suitable for the food industry and can be produced in large amounts by T. atroroseus cell factories. Genetic tools have been established that facilitate elucidation and engineering of its biosynthetic pathways to improve and optimize the yield. As Talaromyces atroroseus does not produce any known mycotoxins it is thereby a potential industrial production organism.
Talaromyces atroroseus IBT 11181 was originally isolated from red sweet bell pepper bought in a Danish supermarket and is deposited in the CBS collection at Westerdijk Fungal Biodiversity Institute, Utrecht, the Netherlands, as CBS 123796 and CBS 238.95.
The genome sequence and gene models of Talaromyces atroroseus IBT 11181 were not determined by the Joint Genome Institute (JGI), but were downloaded from Ensembl Fungi on April 11, 2020. Please note that this copy of the genome is not maintained by Ensembl and is therefore not automatically updated. The JGI Annotation Pipeline was used to add additional functional annotation to the author's chromosomes and proteins.
Genome Reference(s)
Thrane U, Rasmussen KB, Petersen B, Rasmussen S, Sicheritz-Pontén T, Mortensen UH
Genome Sequence of Talaromyces atroroseus, Which Produces Red Colorants for the Food Industry.
Genome Announc. 2017 Mar 2;5(9):. doi: 10.1128/genomeA.01736-16