title: Induction of sexual reproduction and genetic diversity in the cheese fungus Penicillium roqueforti.
abstract: The emblematic fungus Penicillium roqueforti is used throughout the world as a starter culture in the production of blue-veined cheeses. Like other industrial filamentous fungi, P. roqueforti was thought to lack a sexual cycle. However, an ability to induce recombination is of great economic and fundamental importance, as it would make it possible to transform and improve industrial strains, promoting the creation of novel phenotypes and eliminating the deleterious mutations that accumulate during clonal propagation. We report here, for the first time, the induction of the sexual structures of P. roqueforti - ascogonia, cleistothecia and ascospores. The progeny of the sexual cycle displayed clear evidence of recombination. We also used the recently published genome sequence for this species to develop microsatellite markers for investigating the footprints of recombination and population structure in a large collection of isolates from around the world and from different environments. Indeed, P. roqueforti also occurs in silage, wood and human-related environments other than cheese. We found tremendous genetic diversity within P. roqueforti, even within cheese strains and identified six highly differentiated clusters that probably predate the use of this species for cheese production. Screening for phenotypic and metabolic differences between these populations could guide future development strategies.
authors.affiliation: Ecologie, Systématique et Evolution, Université Paris-Sud Orsay Cedex, France ; CNRS Orsay Cedex, France.
authors.forename: Jeanne
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Ropars
authors.affiliation: Origine, Structure, Evolution de la Biodiversité, UMR 7205 CNRS-MNHN, Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle Paris Cedex 05, France.
authors.forename: Manuela
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: López-Villavicencio
authors.affiliation: Origine, Structure, Evolution de la Biodiversité, UMR 7205 CNRS-MNHN, Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle Paris Cedex 05, France.
authors.forename: Joëlle
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Dupont
authors.affiliation: Ecologie, Systématique et Evolution, Université Paris-Sud Orsay Cedex, France ; CNRS Orsay Cedex, France.
authors.forename: Alodie
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Snirc
authors.affiliation: Université de Brest, EA 3882, Laboratoire Universitaire de Biodiversité et d'Ecologie Microbienne, ESIAB, Technopôle Brest-Iroise Plouzané, France.
authors.forename: Guillaume
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Gillot
authors.affiliation: Université de Brest, EA 3882, Laboratoire Universitaire de Biodiversité et d'Ecologie Microbienne, ESIAB, Technopôle Brest-Iroise Plouzané, France.
authors.forename: Monika
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Coton
authors.affiliation: Université de Brest, EA 3882, Laboratoire Universitaire de Biodiversité et d'Ecologie Microbienne, ESIAB, Technopôle Brest-Iroise Plouzané, France.
authors.forename: Jean-Luc
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Jany
authors.affiliation: Université de Brest, EA 3882, Laboratoire Universitaire de Biodiversité et d'Ecologie Microbienne, ESIAB, Technopôle Brest-Iroise Plouzané, France.
authors.forename: Emmanuel
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Coton
authors.affiliation: Ecologie, Systématique et Evolution, Université Paris-Sud Orsay Cedex, France ; CNRS Orsay Cedex, France.
authors.forename: Tatiana
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Giraud
keywords: Aspergillus; HGT; domestication; population structure; sex; wild strains; yeast