Fungal Genomics

Organism description

Penicillium discolor has caused contamination outbreaks in the cheese industry across Europe and the US over the last decades. The fungus displays unusually high natamycin resistance, which enables it to grow on natamycin-rich cheese coatings. In this project, we sequenced both sensitive and resistant P. discolor strains to explore the genetic basis and evolution of natamycin resistance.

Figure. Penicillium discolor strains show varying levels of resistance to the antifungal natamycin (top). Conidiophores visualized by cryoSEM (bottom).