Lasbela, U. J.Sci.Techl., vol. V, pp.201-207, 2016
ISSN
2306-8256
REVIEW ARTICLE
Biotechnology of Penicillium Genus Fatima Sharaf Ali¹, Khalid Mehmood1, Muhammad Anwar1, Ali Akbar2, Samiullah3, Junaid Baber4, Said Qasim5, Imran Ali1,6* 1 Institute of Biochemistry, University of Balochistan, Quetta, Pakistan 2 Department of Microbiology, University of Balochistan, Quetta, Pakistan 3 Department of Chemistry, University of Balochistan, Quetta, Pakistan 4 Department of Computer Science, University of Balochistan, Quetta, Pakistan 5 Department of Geography, University of Balochistan, Quetta, Pakistan. 6 Plant Biomass Utilization Research Unit, Botany Department, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand. Abstract:- Penicillium play a vital role in biotechnology. There are over 300 species of Penicillium which are beneficial to mankind from various features and many are still unexplored that need to be identified. Penicillium exigency ranges from bioremediation, enzyme and biogas begetter, antioxidant source, vitamin producers, pigment provenance for textile/cosmetics colorant and the most and eminent of all as antibiotic agents and some even with antifungal properties. These tiny organisms are more than blessings for mankind. The human population is increasing with increasing demand therefore there is prompt need of research in this trivialized branch of science. Keywords: Fungi, Penicillium, Biotechnology. Dye.
grown in cheese and meat that is healthy for mankind so the Penicillium and the trial to its discoveries should be enhanced to broader aspects (Ali et al., 2014a,b).
INTRODUCTION
Penicillium
lies in phylum Ascomycota of kingdom fungi with the greatest importance. Up to date over 300 species of Penicillium are discovered some of which are Penicilium albicans, Penicillium expansum, Penicillium notatum, Penicillium purpurogenum, Penicillium roqueforti, Penicillium restrictum, Penicillium glandicola, Penicillium digitatum, Penicillium flavigenum, Penicillium inflatum, Penicillium tricolor, Penicillium oxalicum, and Penicillium viticola. After Penicillium, Aspergillus has the second greatest importance in kingdom fungi. The importance of Penicillium is due to its wide application in biotechnology to benefit mankind. The low cost production of valuable chemicals, enzymes, vitamins, proteins and organic molecule has become possible due to Penicillium. Baking bread, production of low cost high effective pigments, killing bacteria and making cheese is due to the qualities of Penicillium, however it also functions in mycotoxin production and food spoilage but its economic utility has more importance than negative list. Even edible Penicillium are
The body type of Penicillium is thallus (mycelium). The hyphae of the Penicillium are multinucleated, colorless and septate. Ascospores and conidiospores are the two types of spores formed in Penicillium asexually and sexually. The conidiospores appear on conidiophores which are then spread and the colony broadens while the ascospores are formed by the fusion of antheridium and archegonium. Penicillium lives in wide range of habitat from cold to hot environment but most specifically soil fungi prefer moderate and cool environment. Penicillium lives as saprophytes on foods and fruits. It appears on different substances including buildings, ceilings and machineries. The spores of Penicillium are present in the environment always. Role in Biotechnology Penicillium is very crucial due to wide application in biotechnology. It is used for the production of many gases like Hydrogen and Methane gas, bioremediation of heavy metals, enzymes, vitamins, cheese, alcohol, and pigment production. Its antibacterial production and genetic engineering is already known to everyone
*Corresponding Author:
[email protected]
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Bioremediation Industrial activities are causing various environmental pollution which is responsible for increased organic and inorganic xenobiotics in the ecosystem. Heavy metals, poly cyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), Phenol and phenolic compound. The inhalation or presence of these substances in the environment is hazardous to mankind and all ecosystem members. Penicillium and some other fungi are greatly used for the bioremediation of such toxic chemicals. The bioremediation technologies used nowadays involve physical, chemical and biological processes. The biological process needs Penicillium and some other fungi for the removal of such xenobiotics from water, soil and air. Fungi grow in aquatic sediments, terrestrial habitats and water surfaces. They are also important for natural remediation of the environment. Fungi are beneficial over bacteria in this sense as fungal hyphae can penetrate into the contaminated soil for thebioremediation action. Among all fungi, Penicillium have received the maximum attention in bioremediation. They have shown their capability to deteriorate and degrade different xenobiotic which are termed mycodeterioration, and mycodegradation respectively. Penicillium simplicissimum YK is capable of degrading polyethylene with molecular weight (MW) of 400 to 28000 (Onodera et al., 2001).Moreover fungi have the ability to produce extracellular enzymes for the degradation and assimilation of pollutants. Most of Penicillium strains are documented to be halotolerant, some halophile, and some as obligate halophile. The halophilic Penicillium strains have better tendency of bioremediation as the factories waste contain high concentration of salt with heavy metals, organic and inorganic acids and radionuclides therefore the capacity of halophilic fungi to remediate pollutants in the presence o f salt becomes e a s i e r . P. janthinellum F-13 has the ability to minimize the aluminum toxicity and production of citric acid (Zhang et al.,
2002). Recently Fan (2008) reported the removal of Zn, Cd and Pb by P. simplicissimum and this fungus has very high potential for bioremediation of metals. Penicillium not only helps in bioremediation but also helps in accumulation of some metals like uranium. P. digitatum accumulates uranium uranyl chloride aqueous solution. The fungus was treated in boiling water and alcohol, it increased the uptake ability to 10,000 parts per million (dry weight) moreover the mycelium of this Penicillium has great tendency to bind with Pb. Zn, Ni and Cd (Galun et al., 1983; Mendil et al., 2008). Say R (2003) reported P. canescence capable of removing As, Hg, Cd and Pb ions from the aqueous solution of biosorption. He also reported P. purpurogenum to remediate high amount of Cr. The Cr absorption ability tends to increase in the first four hours and the level turns to equilibrium. Penicillium strains not only remediate heavy metals, they are also widely used to remediate PAHs. These hydrocarbons exist everywhere in the world but due to different strains of Penicillium this has become possible to remediate such PAHs. Many of the techniques used now days for remediation of PAHs include biological processes. The efficiency of removal depends on type and concentration of PAH, moisture content, temperature, soil characteristics, microorganism, and oxygen concentration. P. frequentans has the ability to remove phenanthrene. Oxygen concentration has a substantial effect in this action (Estrada et al., 2006). Fluorine degradation in the presence of cyclodextrin was documented (Garon et al., 2004). Pyrene is a four ring structure known as genotoxic and it indicates PAH contaminated wastes working as an indicator. P. janthinellum SFU403 has the ability to remove Pyrene. This strain of Penicillium was obtained from petroleum contaminated soil (Boonchan et al., 2000) while Saraswathy and Hallberg (2000) reported for the first time that fungi uses pyrene as the energy source and sole carbon in liquid 202
culture.
utilized in the production of other substances or other purposes. For enzyme production, filamentous fungi are excellent source. They are already famous due to production of extracellular protein. Cellulolytic enzymes are produced by Trichoderma reesei, a fungus of ascomycetes. Cellulase is secreted in a large amount which can benefit industries (Kubicek et al., 2009). This fungus is known as efficient producer of extracellular cellulolytic enzymes (Juhasz et al., 2005; Sehnem et al., 2006). P. chrysogenum also produces extracellular protein with cellulase activity. The same fungus when cultured on media containing sawdust, wheat bran, sugarcane pulp and oat spelt produces xylan. P. purpurogenum is reported for the production of extracellular xylanases moreover xylanase A and xylanase B have been purified and characterized from this fungus (Belancic et al., 1995). Kunitz (1938) reported a Penicillium sp. for the production of kinase that synthesized trypsin from trypsinogen. Penicillium oxalicum stated for the production of caseinase enzymes with milk clotting activity. Concisely there are number of fungi that produce useful enzymes that can benefit mankind. Antibacterial and Antioxidants
Fungi are also useful for the removal of olive mill wastewater (OMW). Olives grown in Mediterranean countries comprises about 98% of global olive production. Large quantity of OMW is produced while olive oil production. 2.5 litre of waste is releases per litre of oil produced. Methods of removal include conventional, electrolysis, and aerobic method while aerobic method is the best method for removal of this waste water as it contains phenolic, tannin and lignin compounds. Penicillium produces such enzymes which are very effective in detoxification of this waste water. Penicillium P4 when cultivated with OMW caused phenolic reduction up to 54% and COD reduction up to 61 % (Robles et al., 2000). Ethanol is produced by fermentation distillation on a large scale in Europe and USA. As a result of ethanol production high amount of liquid waste is generated called vinasses. About 9 to 14 L of waste water is produced per liter of ethanol production. And this waste water is highly acidic (pH 4-5) with high organic content (COD 50 to 100 g/L) (Jiménez et al., 2006). P. decumbens was reported to degrade the phenolic compounds of vinasse in batch regime. About 74 % of phenol removal was noted after 3 days of treatment (Jiménez et al., 2005). P. decumbens also becomes successful in decolorization of vinasse. 41 % color decolorization was noted on the 5 th day. Concisely, fungi play a vital role in bioremediation of all type of pollutant moreover i t is a cheap source for toxic pollutant removal. It is also a natural environment bioremediating agent. Currently many halophilic species are identified that had potential to remediate NaCl from its medium (Ali et al., 2014).
The antibacterial activity of fungi is already known to everyone. Fungi specifically strains of Penicillium are having tremendous potential of producing antibacterial agent and antioxidants. P. chrysogenum has gained scientist’s attention for production of antibiotic Penicillin. The discovery of Penicillin goes back to Alexander Fleming in 1928. Alexander told his Penicillium as P. chrysogenum but Houbraken et al. (2011) declared Alexander’s Penicillium as P. rubens. These two species are phenotypically similar but extrolite analysis demonstrate that secalonic acid D and F or a metabolite related to lumpidin are produced by P. chrysogenum while such metabolites are not produced by P. ruben (Houbraken et al., 2011). Antibiotics from P turbatum broth fermentation were obtained by Michel and
Penicillium as Enzyme Producer There are number of Penicillium that produces extracellular enzymes in their culture media which are very useful to mankind. These enzymes are collected and 203
his colleagues (2006). Currently in 2006 a new antibiotic leucinostatin was discovered and identified by Arai and his friends from P. lilacinum. It was obtained in the form of white prisms. Microorganism typically bacteria has the habit of going under mutation or adopting resistance against antibiotics therefore, there is continuously need of research on antibiotics and discoveries of new antibiotics from new species.
many contributions to food science and food industries (Khachatourians and Arora, 2001). Other members of fungi are already known as food consumption and application at food industried like Yeasts, Candida albicans, Pseudotropicalis, Pachysolen tannophilus, Phaffia rhodozyme, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, Yarrowia lipolytica, Pichia guilliermondii and Penicillium is on the importan lines of description as food consumption and applications but for any microorganism to be used in food industry must have generally recognized as safe (GRAS) status according to FDA (Food and Drug Administration). Vitamins, organic acids, organic molecules, pigments, volatile and nonvolatile flavors are important compounds in food biotechnology. Their production methods rely on microorganism specifically fungi but for any microorganism Specific enzymes produced by fungi contribute value in food biotechnology. The global market demand of enzymes comes from fungi and bacteria. P. roqueforti is an example of edible Penicillium. It is a common fungus widespread in the nature, used in the production of blue cheese. The consumption of blue cheese is documented from AD 50 (Ridgway, 2004). In short fungi have a great impact on food science from baking bread at home till the large scale production industries. Penicillium and Cancer However Penicillium itself is responsible for causing different diseases in living being but its services in disease treatment like Cancer is reported in the recent years which is a massive achievement in disease treatment. Species of Penicillium are being used in nanotechnology due to its cytotoxic effect against cancer. Mishra and collogues recently have used P. brevicompactum biomass for nanoparticle formation against cancer. She stated that the species has cytotoxic effect against mouse mayo blast cancer C2C12 cells (Mishra et al., 2011). 3-O-methylfunicone produced from P. pinophilum can inhibit stem cells of breast cancer stated by Buommino and his
Ali et al. (2014a,b) have declared numbers of filamentous fungi as antioxidants and antibacterial producer. Antioxidant 2, 3-dihydroxy benzoic acid was isolated from P. roquefortii (Hayashi et al., 2014). P. citrinum was reported positive for the production of novel type of antioxidants in its culture broth. Concisely Penicillium and the services it provides to mankind are unlimited, many more are still undiscovered which need to be discovered, identified and modified for biotechnological applications. Biogas Energy has become an essential part of our daily life. Our maximum necessities are being fulfilled by fossil fuels. Due to excessive use, fossil fuels are decreasing. They are also reported as one of the reason of increasing global warming and acid rain therefore there is need of another source of energy (Das and Vezirolu et al., 2011). Scientist has already discovered many other ways of energy production in which mycologists are in the line of description after solar energy. Biogas and bio power are being synthesized and used currently in number of countries by waste water and renewable resources in which microorganism play a vital role. Presently many countries are having biogas plants. Biogas from Chlorella sp. (Ali et al., 2011), cow dung, and fruit peels are already reported and species of Penicillium are treated with the substrate to enhance biogas production. Species of Penicillium are under research for biogas production (Xiao-ming et al., 2008). Penicillium and Food Fungal biotechnology has done 204
friends (2011). Penicillium and Pigment There are number of Penicillium species that secrete pigment in its media which are dried and used as colorant in food, cosmetics, textile and pharmaceutical industries. Color upholds a vital role with the food we consume. It is the primary identification o f a consumer for buying food. At markets purchaser are attracted toward good colored products and avoid synthetic dyed foods. We purchase those products that are felt well by our eyes. Pigment from P. oxalicum, arpink red color is being used extensively in food industries (Dufossé, 2006). Furthermore the food industries are cracking to use natural dyes substituting synthetic dyes using plant and microbial pigments. A blue pigment is reported from P. herquei (Frank et al., 1951). The demand of natural colorant in food and cosmetics have increased that people are ready to pay a premium. Stich (2002) claimed exquisitely that we eat with our eye.
identified extremophiles P. species must be enhanced to reach a milestone. REFERENCES Ali, I.,
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CONCLUSION Species of Penicillium, are extensively important in biotechnology to benefit mankind and its environment. The importance of any microorganism can be enumerated by estimating its negative list with the positive. Species of Penicillium therefore occupy the most important place in biotechnology. Scientists can not consider development in human life without the aid of Penicillium. In the current years obligate and extreme halophilic, thermophile, acidophilic and basophilic Penicillium are identified from the extreme environments of the world which can come with huge achievement after research. As the extreme halophilic Penicillium is reported for scavenging salt from its medium so it is potential to desalinize sea water. The global warming is one of the biggest problem for the scientist round the globe, the extreme thermophilic Penicillium are potential to minimize global heat. The research and trials on Penicillium Species and the newly 205
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Received September 10th, Accepted December 20th 2016 Manuscript can be viewed online at: http://www.lujst.com/
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