Mycophenolic acid is produced during balanced growth of <i>Penicillium brevicompactum</i>

Abstract

When Penicillium brevicompactum is grown on Czapek Dox medium in the surface or sub merged mode as batch or continuous-flow cultures, mycophenolic acid is produced. Unlike the classical secondary metabolic system, 6-methylsalicylic acid production by P. patulum, mycophenolic acid is formed independently of dilution rate in a flow system. Discounting the possibility that strains of P. brevicompactum that produce mycophenolic acid are mutants defective in the control of secondary metabolite biosynthesis, we conclude that mycophenolic acid production is not regulated as part of a non-vegetative genome. An invertase (EC 3.2.1.26) activity has been encountered in both P. brevicompactum and P. patulum.