Tam Emily W T, Tsang Chi-Ching, Lau Susanna K P, Woo Patrick C Y
Department of Microbiology, The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam, Hong Kong.
State Key Laboratory of Emerging Infectious Diseases, The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam, Hong Kong.
Toxins (Basel). 2015 Oct 30;7(11):4421-36. doi: 10.3390/toxins7114421.
Penicillium marneffei (synonym: Talaromyces marneffei) is the most important pathogenic thermally dimorphic fungus in China and Southeastern Asia. The HIV/AIDS pandemic, particularly in China and other Southeast Asian countries, has led to the emergence of P. marneffei infection as an important AIDS-defining condition. Recently, we published the genome sequence of P. marneffei. In the P. marneffei genome, 23 polyketide synthase genes and two polyketide synthase-non-ribosomal peptide synthase hybrid genes were identified. This number is much higher than those of Coccidioides immitis and Histoplasma capsulatum, important pathogenic thermally dimorphic fungi in the Western world. Phylogenetically, these polyketide synthase genes were distributed evenly with their counterparts found in Aspergillus species and other fungi, suggesting that polyketide synthases in P. marneffei did not diverge from lineage-specific gene duplication through a recent expansion. Gene knockdown experiments and ultra-high performance liquid chromatography-photodiode array detector/electrospray ionization-quadruple time of flight-mass spectrometry analysis confirmed that at least four of the polyketide synthase genes were involved in the biosynthesis of various pigments in P. marneffei, including melanin, mitorubrinic acid, mitorubrinol, monascorubrin, rubropunctatin, citrinin and ankaflavin, some of which were mycotoxins and virulence factors of the fungus.
马尔尼菲青霉（同义词：马尔尼菲篮状菌）是中国和东南亚最重要的致病性双相真菌。艾滋病毒/艾滋病的流行，特别是在中国和其他东南亚国家，导致马尔尼菲青霉感染成为一种重要的艾滋病界定疾病。最近，我们发表了马尔尼菲青霉的基因组序列。在马尔尼菲青霉基因组中，鉴定出23个聚酮合酶基因和两个聚酮合酶-非核糖体肽合酶杂交基因。这个数量远高于西方世界重要的致病性双相真菌粗球孢子菌和荚膜组织胞浆菌。在系统发育上，这些聚酮合酶基因与其在曲霉菌种和其他真菌中发现的对应基因均匀分布，这表明马尔尼菲青霉中的聚酮合酶并非通过近期的扩增从谱系特异性基因复制中分化而来。基因敲低实验和超高效液相色谱-光电二极管阵列检测器/电喷雾电离-四极杆飞行时间质谱分析证实，至少有四个聚酮合酶基因参与了马尔尼菲青霉中各种色素的生物合成，包括黑色素、米托菌素酸、米托菌素醇、红曲红素、红曲玉红素、桔霉素和红曲黄素，其中一些是该真菌的霉菌毒素和毒力因子。
