Citrinin is one of the mycotoxins produced by Penicillium citrinum. We examined the decomposition products after heating citrinin in water at 140 degrees C and isolated a major product, citrinin H2 (3-(3,5-dihydroxy-2-methylphenyl)-2-formyloxy-butane). Citrinin H2 did not show significant cytotoxicity to HeLa cells up to a concentration of 200 microg/ml (% cytotoxicity: 39%) in 63 h of incubati...

Citrinin mycotoxin is a polyketide produced by several species of the genera Aspergillus, Penicillium and Monascus. Though A. niger is reported to be the highest producer of citrinin among the Aspergillus species, other citrinin producers of this genus include A. awentil, A. ostianus, A. fumigatus, A. niveus, A.awamori and A. parasiticus [1]. Some of the citrinin producing fungi are also able t...

Seven strains of Penicillium viridicatum isolated from country-cured ham produced citrinin in potato dextrose broth and on country-cured ham. None of the strains produced detectable amounts of citrinin at 10 C. The optimal temperature range for citrinin production was 25 to 30 C.

More and more people pay attention to citrinin produced by Monascus, which has nephrotoxic activity in mammals. It was reported that pksCT gene is responsible for citrinin biosynthesis in Monascus purpureus. In this paper, two DNA fragments in both ends of pksCT were amplified by genomic PCR from fourteen Monascus spp. strains. The PCR products were gained from all of the strains. It is suggest...

Citrinin is one of the mycotoxins and has been shown to have various toxic effects in animals and humans. Although previous study showed the toxic effects of citrinin on the female reproductive system, especially on oocyte maturation, however, the causes or mechanism of citrinin on oocyte quality is unclear. In present study we deeply investigated this topic. We found thatcitrinin toxin exposur...

Four new citrinin derivatives, including two citrinin dimers and two citrinin monomer derivatives, were isolated and identified from a marine-derived fungal strain Penicillium sp. ML226 along with six known related compounds. Their structures were elucidated by spectroscopic and chemical methods. The new compounds showed modest cytotoxic activity against HepG-2 cell line and weak antimicrobial ...

Citrinin, a hepato-nephrotoxic compound to humans, can be produced by the food fermentation microorganisms Monascus spp. In this study, we investigated the distribution of mycotoxin citrinin biosynthesis genes in 18 Monascus strains. The results show that the acyl-transferase and ketosynthase domains of the pksCT gene encoding citrinin polyketide synthase were found in Monascus purpureus, Monas...

BACKGROUND Citrinin is a mycotoxin produced by several species of the genera Aspergillus, Penicillium and Monascus and it occurs mainly in stored grain. Citrinin is generally formed after harvest and occurs mainly in stored grains, it also occurs in other plant products. Often, the co-occurrence with other mycotoxins is observed, especially ochratoxin A, which is usually associated with endemic...

Citrinin, a secondary fungal metabolite of polyketide origin, is moderately nephrotoxic to vertebrates, including humans. From the red-pigment producer Monascus purpureus, a 21-kbp region flanking pksCT, which encodes citrinin polyketide synthase, was cloned. Four open reading frames (ORFs) (orf1, orf2, orf3, and orf4) in the 5'-flanking region and one ORF (orf5) in the 3'-flanking region were ...

Citrinin is a toxic secondary metabolite of Penicillium citrinum and its contamination in many food items has been widely reported. However, research on the citrinin biosynthesis pathway and its regulation mechanism in P. citrinum is rarely reported. In this study, we investigated the effect of different carbon sources on citrinin production by P. citrinum and used transcriptome analysis to stu...