Inactivation of Gene in M7 Results in Increased Pigments and Decreased Citrinin with Selection Marker.

pigments (MPs) have been used as food colorants for several centuries in Asian countries and are currently used around the world via Asian catering. The MPs biosynthetic pathway has been well-illustrated; however, the functions of a few genes including in the MPs gene cluster of M7 are still unclear. In the current study, was disrupted in ΔΔ, a highly efficient gene modification system, using as a selection marker, and ΔΔΔ:: and ΔΔΔ have been obtained. Subsequently, their morphologies, biomasses, MPs and citrinin (CIT) production were analyzed, respectively. These results have revealed that the deletion of has significant effects on the morphology and growth of M7. Moreover, compared with M7, the yields of MPs and CIT were drastically increased and decreased in mutants, respectively.