Published in a recent edition of Genome Biology, lead author Ronald de Vries of the Westerdijk Fungal Biodiversity Institute in the Netherlands says several Aspergillus species have already established status as cell factories for enzymes and metabolites. “However, little is known about the diversity in the species at the level and this paper demonstrates how diverse the species of this genus are,” he says. “One can’t assume that an Aspergillus species will have the same physiology as a better studied species of the genus.”
The work compared the ten newly sequenced genomes with the eight Aspergillus species already sequenced and found a greater genomic and functional diversity than previously thought. There are over 350 Aspergillus species. Aspergillus niger is already well-established in the production of citric acid, while other species are used to produce biofuels.
“There is [still] much to learn and get from a better study [of Aspergillus],” de Vries says. “The potential for applications within the genus has barely been touched.”
The team included researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy Joint Genome Institute, a Department of Energy Office of Science User Facility.