A comparative genomics study of 23 Aspergillus species from section Flavi

Inge Kjærbølling (1) , Tammi Vesth (1) , Jens Frisvad (1) , Jane Nybo (1) , Sebastian Theobald (1) , Sara Kildgaard (1) , Thomas Isbrandt Petersen (1) , Alan Kuo (2) , Atsushi Sato , Ellen Lyhne , Martin Kogle (1) , Ad Wiebenga , Roland Kun , Ronnie Lubbers , Miia Mäkelä , Kerrie Barry (2) , Mansi Chovatia (2) , Alicia Clum (2) , Chris Daum (2) , Sajeet Haridas (2) , Guifen He (2) , Kurt Labutti (2) , Anna Lipzen (2) , Stephen Mondo (2) , Jasmyn Pangilinan (2) , Robert Riley (2) , Asaf Salamov (2) , Blake Simmons (2) , Jon Magnuson (2) , Bernard Henrissat (3) , Uffe Mortensen (1) , Thomas Larsen (1) , Ronald de Vries , Igor Grigoriev (2) , Masayuki Machida (4) , Scott Baker (2) , Mikael Andersen (1)

1 Lyngby Universitet
2 DOE - U.S. Department of Energy [Washington]
3 AFMB - Architecture et fonction des macromolécules biologiques
4 Department of Information and Systems Engineering [Kanazawa]

Section Flavi encompasses both harmful and beneficial Aspergillus species, such as Aspergillus oryzae, used in food fermentation and enzyme production, and Aspergillus flavus, food spoiler and mycotoxin producer. Here, we sequence 19 genomes spanning section Flavi and compare 31 fungal genomes including 23 Flavi species. We reassess their phylogenetic relationships and show that the closest relative of A. oryzae is not A. flavus, but A. minisclerotigenes or A. aflatoxiformans and identify high genome diversity, especially in sub-telomeric regions. We predict abundant CAZymes (598 per species) and prolific secondary metabolite gene clusters (73 per species) in section Flavi. However, the observed phenotypes (growth characteristics, polysaccharide degradation) do not necessarily correlate with inferences made from the predicted CAZyme content. Our work, including genomic analyses, phenotypic assays, and identification of secondary metabolites, highlights the genetic and metabolic diversity within section Flavi.

Domaines: Sciences du Vivant [q-bio]

Inge Kjærbølling, Tammi Vesth, Jens Frisvad, Jane Nybo, Sebastian Theobald, et al.. A comparative genomics study of 23 Aspergillus species from section Flavi. Nature Communications, 2020, 11 (1), ⟨10.1038/s41467-019-14051-y⟩. ⟨hal-03162772⟩