Penicillium psychrofluorescens sp. nov., a naturally autofluorescent Antarctic fungus

A new fungal species, Penicillium psychrofluorescens sp. nov. is described as a member of section Torulomyces. The new species is sister to P. catalonicum, and was isolated from soil collected from Robinson Ridge, East Antarctica, following enrichment cultivation under oligotrophic conditions supplemented with excess hydrogen gas. Penicillium psychrofluorescens is named for its intense autofluorescence derived from a combination of compounds that may include NADPH, porphyrins, and secondary metabolites, such as polyketides. Comparative genomics with both Antarctic and mesophilic Penicillium spp. shows that Penicillium psychrofluorescens has a wide repertoire of glycoside hydrolases, but almost no polysaccharide lyases, has comparably large effector proteins, lacks the machinery to use nitrate as an N-source, but has the genes for the assimilation of phosphorus from phosphonates via oxidative pathway. The strain was found to have 30 biosynthetic gene clusters (BGCs), the majority of which were unrelated to known compound BGCs. Given the remarkable diversity of natural products already characterised from Penicillium spp. and the presence of >30 BGCs with low similarity to known genes, there is biotechnological potential within this novel species that is yet to be explored.