, a Vintage Model with a Cutting-Edge Profile in Biotechnology

Overview

Journal Microorganisms

Specialty Microbiology

Date 2022 Mar 26

PMID 35336148

Authors

Francisco Fierro

Inmaculada Vaca

Nancy I Castillo

Ramon Ovidio Garcia-Rico

Renato Chavez

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

The discovery of penicillin entailed a decisive breakthrough in medicine. No other medical advance has ever had the same impact in the clinical practise. The fungus (reclassified as ) has been used for industrial production of penicillin ever since the forties of the past century; industrial biotechnology developed hand in hand with it, and currently is a thoroughly studied model for secondary metabolite production and regulation. In addition to its role as penicillin producer, recent synthetic biology advances have put on the path to become a cell factory for the production of metabolites with biotechnological interest. In this review, we tell the history of , from the discovery of penicillin and the first isolation of strains with high production capacity to the most recent research advances with the fungus. We will describe how classical strain improvement programs achieved the goal of increasing production and how the development of different molecular tools allowed further improvements. The discovery of the penicillin gene cluster, the origin of the penicillin genes, the regulation of penicillin production, and a compilation of other secondary metabolites will also be covered and updated in this work.

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