Fungal Genomics

Organism description

Chlorociboria aeruginascens CBS 122017 is a blue-green fungus commonly found in forests worldwide and easily recognized as it grows on dead wood which is stained blue. Such spalted wood has been used in wood art for centuries. The blue color is due to the production of a dimeric naphthoquinone pigment named xylindein. Apart from its stunning color and stability, xylindein exhibits interesting optoelectronic properties that make it a promising natural semi-conductor for the development of organic solar cells. This C. aeruginascens strain was sequenced to identify the xylindein biosynthetic pathway.

Reference

Please cite this paper when using data from this genome:

Guo Y, Navarro-Muñoz J, Rodenbach C, Dwars E, Dieleman C, van den Hout B, Sanders B, Zhou M, Arogunjo A, Cox RJ, Driessen AJM, Collemare J. Identification of a Biosynthetic Gene Cluster for the Production of the Blue-Green Pigment Xylindein by the Fungus Chlorociboria aeruginascens. J Nat Prod. 2025 Feb 28;88(2):233-244. doi: 10.1021/acs.jnatprod.4c00350.

Figure. Chlorociboria aeruginascens fruiting bodies on dead wood, which is stained blue (Photo by Jérôme Collemare)