Sex und Penicillin-Biosynthese in Schimmelpilzen

Penicillium chrysogenum is the only industrial producer of the β-lactam antibiotic penicillin. Like many other biotechnologically relevant fungi, it has been considered to be asexual, since no sexual propagation has been observed under laboratory conditions. The discovery of a sexual life cycle, the functional characterization of mating-type encoded transcription factors, and a comparative genomic analysis, however, will facilitate further improvement of P. chrysogenum strains used for industrial applications.