Cocultivation Study of Monascus spp. and Aspergillus niger Inspired From Black-Skin-Red-Koji by a Double-Sided Petri Dish

Abstract

Cocultivation is an emerging and potential way to investigate microbial interaction in the laboratory. Extensive researches has been carried out over the years, but some microorganism cocultivation are not easy to implement in the laboratory, especially the fungus-fungus (FF) cocultivation, owing to the obstacles such as fungal different growth rate, limited growing space, hyphae intertwining, and difficulty of sample separation, etc. In this research, a double-sided petri dish (DSPD) was designed and carried out as a tool to study FF cocultivation in the laboratory. A natural FF cocultivation of Monascus spp. and Aspergillus niger inspired from black-skin-red-koji (BSRK), were studied. By using DSPD, the aforementioned obstacles in the FF cocultivation study were overcome through co-culturing Monascus spp. and A. niger on each side of DSPD. The characteristics of monocultured and co-cultured Monascus spp. and A. niger were compared and analyzed, including colonial and microscopic morphologies, and main secondary metabolites (SMs) of Monascus spp. analyzed by high performance liquid chromatography. And a novel SM was found to be produced by Monascus ruber M7 when co-cultured with A. niger CBS 513.88. Since the above mentioned obstacles, were overcome, we obtained good quality of transcriptome data for further analysis. These results indicate that DSPD might be an efficient tool for investigation of microbial interaction, in particular, for FF interaction.

Study on microbial community of “green-covering” Tuqu and the effect of fortified autochthonous Monascus purpureus on the flavor components of light-aroma-type Baijiu

“…This was supposed to be one of the reasons for the lower higher alcohols production in the original liquor produced by ERH, because the higher alcohols in Baijiu were mainly produced by yeast through the Ehrlich and Harris pathways ( Cheng et al, 2011 ; Wang et al, 2020 ). Yuan and Chen (2021) found that Aspergillus niger significantly inhibited the growth of Monascus when they were cocultured, and Wang et al (2012) found that yellow pigment produced by Monascus strongly inhibited the spore formation of A. niger . Both Monascus and Aspergillus were dominant genera in TQ, and they competed with each other for nutrients and growth space, demonstrating that the balance between different microbial species was crucial for flavor substances in LATB.…”

Inactivation of mrpigH Gene in Monascus ruber M7 Results in Increased Monascus Pigments and Decreased Citrinin with mrpyrG Selection Marker

“…The pigments groups concentration was measured using a UV−vis UV-1700 spectrophotometer (Shimadzu, Tokyo, Japan) at 380, 470 and 520 nm which are the maximal absorption of yellow, orange, and red pigments, respectively. The results were expressed as optical density (OD) units per gram of dried mycelia multiplied by a dilution factor [15].…”

Changes in Key Aroma Compounds and Esterase Activity of Monascus-Fermented Cheese across a 30-Day Ripening Period

“…In addition to its potential clinical benefit, it is worth noting that Monascus sp. has also been used as a starter culture in traditional Chinese fermented foods (e.g., Monascus rice wine, Monascus vinegar, and red fermented bean curd) for over 1000 years [ 3 ]. Ren et al successfully isolated and screened 35 fermentation starters among the Monascus strain FJMR24 with high amylase activity and high glucoamylase activity, resulting in outstanding fermentation adaptability in the process of rice wine brewing [ 4 ].…”