Monacolin K production by citrinin-freeMonascus pilosusMS-1 and fermentation process monitoring

Adding genistein or luteolin decreased the yield of citrinin and without reducing pigments in yam solid-fermentation by Monascus

BACKGROUND

Chinese yam fermented by Monascus, namely red mold dioscorea (RMD), has the potential of treating diseases. However, the production of citrinin limits the application of RMD. In the present study, the fermentation process of Monascus was optimized by adding genistein or luteolin to reduce citrinin yield.

RESULTS

The results showed that citrinin in 25 g of Huai Shan yam was reduced by 48% and 72% without affecting the pigment yield by adding 0.2 g of luteolin or genistein, respectively, to a 250-mL conical flask after fermentation for 18 days at 28 °C, whereas the addition of luteolin increased the content of yellow pigment by 1.3-fold. Under optimal conditions, citrinin in 20 g of iron bar yam decreased by 55% and 74% after adding 0.2 g of luteolin or genistein. Luteolin also increased yellow pigment content by 1.2-fold. Ultra HPLC coupled to quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry was used for the preliminary analysis of Monascus fermentation products. It was found that the amino acid types in RMD are similar to those in yams, but there are fewer polysaccharides and fatty acids.

CONCLUSION

The results obtained in the present study showed that the addition of genistein or luteolin could reduce citrinin on the premise of increasing pigment yield, which laid a foundation for the better use of yams in Monascus fermentation. © 2023 Society of Chemical Industry.

-Improved natural food colorant production in the filamentous fungus Monascus ruber using CRISPR-based engineering

Monascus pigments have various food industry applications and are pharmacologically active. Genome sequencing-based clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR)/CRISPR-associated protein 9 (Cas9) technology has been implemented to increase pigment production in Monascus. To increase pigment production in M. ruber KACC46666, the CRISPR/Cas9 system was used to introduce mutations in two negative regulator genes (MpigI and MpigI'), among other genes involved in the Monascus pigment biosynthesis pathway. Dual single-guide RNAs were constructed to inactivate MpigI and MpigI'. After CRISPR/Cas9 inactivation, yellow, orange, and red pigment expression in the resulting △MpigI16-7 strain (among several Cas9-mediated mutants studied) was 2.5-, 12.4-, and 18.5-fold, respectively, higher than that in the wild-type strain. This study provides valuable information regarding CRISPR-guided metabolic engineering for natural colorant production.

Safety evaluation of mycotoxin citrinin production from Monascus ruber through whole-genome sequencing and analytical evaluation

In this study, the whole genome of Monascus ruber KACC 46666 was generated using the PacBio RSII sequencer with high-quality de novo assembly to obtain trustworthy assembly and annotation using genome assemblies with long reads from PacBio single-molecule real-time sequencing. The whole genome of M. ruber has a total length of 25.9 Mb, divided in 13 contigs with 9639 genes. The functions of genes involved in secondary metabolite production were further analyzed. Gene clusters involved in the production of Monascus pigment, monacolin K, and mycotoxin citrinin were identified. Notably, most of the citrinin gene cluster was lost, as confirmed via high-performance liquid chromatography analysis. This genome-level safety evaluation of industrially important Monascus strains will provide valuable information for genome-based microbial engineering of natural food colorants and production of commercially important secondary metabolites such as monacolin K.

Preparation of Monascus-fermented ginkgo seeds: optimization of fermentation parameters and evaluation of bioactivity

In this study, a high monacolin K yield was achieved through solid-state fermentation of Ginkgo biloba seeds. Monascus purpureus suspension made from red yeast rice was used as spore inoculum. Fermentation conditions in solid-state fermentation were optimized using response surface methodology, and the optimal conditions for the maximum monacolin K yield (17.71 ± 1.57 mg/g) were 0.22% ammonium sulfate, 0.34% ammonium chloride, 0.05% magnesium sulfate, fermentation time of 12 days, inoculation volume of 11%, and temperature of 27 °C. The total phenolic content of Monascus-fermented ginkgo seeds attained 9.67 mg GAE/g, 4.88-fold higher than that of unfermented ginkgo seeds. The scavenging abilities of DPPH and ABTS free radicals increased to 9.79 mg TE/g and 13.92 mg TE/g, respectively. These findings highlight the importance of investigating the optimal fermentation conditions for maximum monacolin K yield and the utilization value of ginkgo seed as fermentation substrate for higher bioactivities.

Supplementary Information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10068-022-01078-z.

Cocultivation Study of Monascus spp. and Aspergillus niger Inspired From Black-Skin-Red-Koji by a Double-Sided Petri Dish

Cocultivation is an emerging and potential way to investigate microbial interaction in the laboratory. Extensive researches has been carried out over the years, but some microorganism cocultivation are not easy to implement in the laboratory, especially the fungus-fungus (FF) cocultivation, owing to the obstacles such as fungal different growth rate, limited growing space, hyphae intertwining, and difficulty of sample separation, etc. In this research, a double-sided petri dish (DSPD) was designed and carried out as a tool to study FF cocultivation in the laboratory. A natural FF cocultivation of Monascus spp. and Aspergillus niger inspired from black-skin-red-koji (BSRK), were studied. By using DSPD, the aforementioned obstacles in the FF cocultivation study were overcome through co-culturing Monascus spp. and A. niger on each side of DSPD. The characteristics of monocultured and co-cultured Monascus spp. and A. niger were compared and analyzed, including colonial and microscopic morphologies, and main secondary metabolites (SMs) of Monascus spp. analyzed by high performance liquid chromatography. And a novel SM was found to be produced by Monascus ruber M7 when co-cultured with A. niger CBS 513.88. Since the above mentioned obstacles, were overcome, we obtained good quality of transcriptome data for further analysis. These results indicate that DSPD might be an efficient tool for investigation of microbial interaction, in particular, for FF interaction.

Assimilation of Cholesterol by Monascus purpureus

Monascus purpureus, a filamentous fungus known for its fermentation of red yeast rice, produces the metabolite monacolin K used in statin drugs to inhibit cholesterol biosynthesis. In this study, we show that active cultures of M. purpureus CBS 109.07, independent of secondary metabolites, use the mechanism of cholesterol assimilation to lower cholesterol in vitro. We describe collection, extraction, and gas chromatography-flame ionized detection (GC-FID) methods to quantify the levels of cholesterol remaining after incubation of M. purpureus CBS 109.07 with exogenous cholesterol. Our findings demonstrate that active growing M. purpureus CBS 109.07 can assimilate cholesterol, removing 36.38% of cholesterol after 48 h of incubation at 37 °C. The removal of cholesterol by resting or dead M. purpureus CBS 109.07 was not significant, with cholesterol reduction ranging from 2.75-9.27% throughout a 72 h incubation. Cholesterol was also not shown to be catabolized as a carbon source. Resting cultures transferred from buffer to growth media were able to reactivate, and increases in cholesterol assimilation and growth were observed. In growing and resting phases at 24 and 72 h, the production of the mycotoxin citrinin was quantified via high-performance liquid chromatography-ultraviolet (HPLC-UV) and found to be below the limit of detection. The results indicate that M. purpureus CBS 109.07 can reduce cholesterol content in vitro and may have a potential application in probiotics.

Transfigured Morphology and Ameliorated Production of Six Monascus Pigments by Acetate Species Supplementation in Monascus ruber M7

Monascus species have been used for the production of many industrially and medically important metabolites, most of which are polyketides produced by the action of polyketide synthases that use acetyl-CoA and malonyl-CoA as precursors, and some of them are derived from acetate. In this study the effects of acetic acid, and two kinds of acetates, sodium acetate and ammonium acetate at different concentrations (0.1%, 0.25% and 0.5%) on the morphologies, biomasses, and six major Monascus pigments (MPs) of M. ruber M7 were investigated when M7 strain was cultured on potato dextrose agar (PDA) at 28 °C for 4, 8, 12 days. The results showed that all of the added acetate species significantly affected eight above-mentioned parameters. In regard to morphologies, generally the colonies transformed from a big orange fleecy ones to a small compact reddish ones, or a tightly-packed orange ones without dispersed mycelia with the increase of additives concentration. About the biomass, addition of ammonium acetate at 0.1% increased the biomass of M. ruber M7. With respect to six MPs, all acetate species can enhance pigment production, and ammonium acetate has the most significant impacts. Production of monascin and ankaflavin had the highest increase of 11.7-fold and 14.2-fold in extracellular contents at the 8th day when 0.1% ammonium acetate was supplemented into PDA. Intracellular rubropunctatin and monascorubrin contents gained 9.6 and 6.46-fold at the 8th day, when 0.1% ammonium acetate was added into PDA. And the extracellular contents of rubropunctamine and monascorubramine were raised by 1865 and 4100-fold at the 4th day when M7 grew on PDA with 0.5% ammonium acetate.

Using millet as substrate for efficient production of monacolin K by solid-state fermentation of Monascus ruber

In this study, various grains such as rice, millet, corn, barley and wheat were used as raw materials for monacolin K production by solid-state fermentation of Monascus ruber. Among these substrates, millet was found to be the best one for monacolin K production, by which the yield reached 7.12 mg/g. For enhanced monacolin K production, the effects of fermentation time, charge amount, initial moisture content and inoculum volume were systematically investigated in the solid-state fermentation of M. ruber. Moreover, complementary carbon source and nitrogen source were added for further improving the production of monacolin K. Results showed that the maximum production of monacolin K (19.81 mg/g) could be obtained at the optimal conditions. Compared with the traditional red mold rice, using millet as substrate is promising for high production of monacolin K in the solid-state fermentation of M. ruber.

A Monascus pilosus MS-1 strain with high-yield monacolin K but no citrinin

Monacolin K (MK) produced by Monascus spp. is mostly used to regulate cholesterol level, while it can be contaminated by citrinin, a mycotoxin yielded by some Monascus strains. To develop production of citrinin-free MK, an M. sp. MS-1 strain, identified as M. pilosus by morphologies and internal transcribed spacer sequences analysis, was isolated from red fermented rice. After 14 days of fermentation, yields of citrinin-free MK could be up to 0.58 mg/mL and 16.45 mg/g in liquid- and solidstate fermentation products under optimal conditions, respectively. Further determination revealed that no citrinin biosynthesis related genes such as ctnA, pksCT, ctnE, and ctnR were detected. Thus, HPLC combined with citrinin-related gene analyses can be used for rapid screening of non-citrinin production Monascus strains.