Orange, red, yellow: Biosynthesis of azaphilone pigments in Monascus fungi

Wanping Chen; Runfa Chen; Qingpei Liu; Yi He; Kun He; Xiaoli Ding; Lijing Kang; Xiaoxiao Guo; Nana Xie; Youxiang Zhou; Yuanyuan Lu; Russell J. Cox; István Molnár; Mu Li; Yanchun Shao; Fusheng Chen

doi:10.1039/c7sc00475c

Orange, red, yellow: Biosynthesis of azaphilone pigments in Monascus fungi

Wanping Chen^*
, Runfa Chen
, Qingpei Liu
, Yi He
, Kun He
, Xiaoli Ding
, Lijing Kang
, Xiaoxiao Guo
, Nana Xie
, Youxiang Zhou^*
, Yuanyuan Lu
, Russell J. Cox
, István Molnár^*
, Mu Li
, Yanchun Shao
, Fusheng Chen

^*Corresponding author for this work

Not published at VTT

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Scientific › peer-review

290 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Monascus azaphilone pigments (MonAzPs) are very widely used as food colorants, but their biosynthetic pathway has remained poorly characterized for more than half a century. In this study, the individual steps of MonAzPs biosynthesis in Monascus ruber M7 were elucidated by a combination of targeted gene knockouts, heterologous gene expression, and in vitro chemical and enzymatic reactions. This study describes the first rational engineering of MonAzPs biosynthesis and provides a roadmap for future pathway engineering efforts directed towards the selective production of the most valuable pigments and serves as a model for the biosynthesis of fungal azaphilones in general.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	4917-4925
Journal	Chemical Science
Volume	8
Issue number	7
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1039/c7sc00475c
Publication status	Published - 1 Jul 2017
MoE publication type	A1 Journal article-refereed

Funding

This study was supported by the Major Program of National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 31330059 to F. C.), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 31171649 to F. C., 31271834 to Y. S., 31371824 to Y. Z., 31401631 to M. L., and 31601446 to W. C.), the National Institutes of Health (NIGMS R01GM114418-01A1 to I. M.), and Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (INST 187/621-1, LCMS equipment, to R. J. C).

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title = "Orange, red, yellow: Biosynthesis of azaphilone pigments in Monascus fungi",

abstract = "Monascus azaphilone pigments (MonAzPs) are very widely used as food colorants, but their biosynthetic pathway has remained poorly characterized for more than half a century. In this study, the individual steps of MonAzPs biosynthesis in Monascus ruber M7 were elucidated by a combination of targeted gene knockouts, heterologous gene expression, and in vitro chemical and enzymatic reactions. This study describes the first rational engineering of MonAzPs biosynthesis and provides a roadmap for future pathway engineering efforts directed towards the selective production of the most valuable pigments and serves as a model for the biosynthesis of fungal azaphilones in general.",

author = "Wanping Chen and Runfa Chen and Qingpei Liu and Yi He and Kun He and Xiaoli Ding and Lijing Kang and Xiaoxiao Guo and Nana Xie and Youxiang Zhou and Yuanyuan Lu and Cox, \{Russell J.\} and Istv{\'a}n Moln{\'a}r and Mu Li and Yanchun Shao and Fusheng Chen",

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doi = "10.1039/c7sc00475c",

language = "English",

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TY - JOUR

T1 - Orange, red, yellow

T2 - Biosynthesis of azaphilone pigments in Monascus fungi

AU - Chen, Wanping

AU - Chen, Runfa

AU - Liu, Qingpei

AU - He, Yi

AU - He, Kun

AU - Ding, Xiaoli

AU - Kang, Lijing

AU - Guo, Xiaoxiao

AU - Xie, Nana

AU - Zhou, Youxiang

AU - Lu, Yuanyuan

AU - Cox, Russell J.

AU - Molnár, István

AU - Li, Mu

AU - Shao, Yanchun

AU - Chen, Fusheng

PY - 2017/7/1

Y1 - 2017/7/1

N2 - Monascus azaphilone pigments (MonAzPs) are very widely used as food colorants, but their biosynthetic pathway has remained poorly characterized for more than half a century. In this study, the individual steps of MonAzPs biosynthesis in Monascus ruber M7 were elucidated by a combination of targeted gene knockouts, heterologous gene expression, and in vitro chemical and enzymatic reactions. This study describes the first rational engineering of MonAzPs biosynthesis and provides a roadmap for future pathway engineering efforts directed towards the selective production of the most valuable pigments and serves as a model for the biosynthesis of fungal azaphilones in general.

AB - Monascus azaphilone pigments (MonAzPs) are very widely used as food colorants, but their biosynthetic pathway has remained poorly characterized for more than half a century. In this study, the individual steps of MonAzPs biosynthesis in Monascus ruber M7 were elucidated by a combination of targeted gene knockouts, heterologous gene expression, and in vitro chemical and enzymatic reactions. This study describes the first rational engineering of MonAzPs biosynthesis and provides a roadmap for future pathway engineering efforts directed towards the selective production of the most valuable pigments and serves as a model for the biosynthesis of fungal azaphilones in general.

UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/85021760170

U2 - 10.1039/c7sc00475c

DO - 10.1039/c7sc00475c

M3 - Article

C2 - 28959415

AN - SCOPUS:85021760170

SN - 2041-6520

VL - 8

SP - 4917

EP - 4925

JO - Chemical Science

JF - Chemical Science

IS - 7

ER -

Orange, red, yellow: Biosynthesis of azaphilone pigments in Monascus fungi

Abstract

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