Penicillium is a family of fungi consisting of more than 350 species, important for its ubiquity and role in mycotoxin production, biotechnology, applied research and fermented cheese rind production. Mushrooms play an essential role in the maturation of cured meats and contribute not only to improving taste and characteristics, but also to counteracting product spoilage due to the growth of toxigenic and pathogenic fungi.

Penicillium includes many genres with the same name:

• Penicillium roqueforti, Penicillium camemberti e Penicillium nalgiovense are widely used by the food industry in the production of fresh cheeses and sausages that receive a fermentation treatment with moulds.

• Penicillium solitum from which Fleming isolated penicillin. 
• Penicillium funiculosum, Penicillium   purpurogenum  are important as natural dyes and as producers of cellulases and xylanases (extracellular enzymes), but recently belong to the renamed species Talaromyces.
• Penicillium  chrysogenum  is able to synthesise secondary metabolites such as β-lactam antibiotics and aids meat fermentation. It produces enzymes relevant to the food industry, such as sulfydryl oxidase, dihydroxyacid dehydratase or glucoamylase (1).
• Penicillium griseofulvum produces an antifungal antibiotic called griseofulvin, isolated in 1946. It also produces cyclopiazonic acid, a neurotoxin and fungal mycotoxin that can be used as a biochemical nematicide.
• Penicillium  aurantiogriseum is a pathogen that can be found in cereals and damages strawberries and asparagus.
• Penicillium  viridicatum produces aflatoxins including citrinin, a nephrotoxic mycotoxin that can be found in preserved food, cereals, fruit. It also produces cyclopiazonic acid, a neurotoxin and fungal mycotoxin that can be used as a biochemical nematicide. 
• Penicillium  verrucosum produces aflatoxins including ochratoxin A, a mycotoxin, in wheat, food, damaged conditioners, dried grapes, pork, coffee.
• Penicillium  expansum  rots fruit and produces patulin, a mycotoxin that especially damages apples.
• Penicillium  digitatum or green mould, a phytopathogen of citrus fruits.  
• Penicillium italicum or blue mould, the most harmful, also a citrus fruit phytopathogen.
• Penicillium marneffei pathogen at significant risk for immunodeficient individuals (2).
• Penicillium janczewskii from which inulin, a polysaccharide substrate used for the production of fructose syrups, is obtained.
• Penicillium urticae  produces patulin, a mycotoxin that especially damages apples, but also an antifungal antibiotic called griseofulvin, isolated in 1946.
• Penicillium raistrickii produces penicipiranes, a family containing pyranes, coumarins, flavones and also an antifungal antibiotic called griseofulvin, isolated in 1946.
• Penicillium raciborskii produces type A, B and C antifungal outovirins similar to gliovirin and also an antifungal antibiotic called griseofulvin, isolated in 1946.
• Penicillium kapuscinskii  produces the antifungal antibiotic called griseofulvin, isolated in 1946.
• Penicillium albidum produces albidine, a red antibiotic pigment active against Botrytis allii (3) and also produces the antifungal antibiotic called griseofulvin, isolated in 1946.
• Penicillium melinii is an aquatic fungus collected in the Sea of Okhotsk, Pacific Ocean, containing an interesting enzyme (4) and also produces the antifungal antibiotic called griseofulvin, isolated in 1946.
• Penicillium brefeldianum. The crude extract of this interesting endophytic fungus exhibits significant antioxidant and α-glycosidase inhibition activities as well as tyrosine phosphatase, protein and enzyme group (5). It also produces the antifungal antibiotic called griseofulvin, isolated in 1946.
•  Penicillium commune,  endophytic fungus, the best known mould that is created on cheese, meat, nuts.  It also produces cyclopiazonic acid, a neurotoxin and fungal mycotoxin, but can be used as a biochemical nematicide (6). 
• Penicillium gravinicasei is a fungus recently isolated during research on mature cheeses in Gravina di Puglia, Italy (7). 
• Penicillium citrinum derived from ergot is a fungus from which ergotamine-derived alkaloid pharmaceutical agents used to treat postpartum bleeding and to increase the strength of uterine contractions during childbirth can be synthesised (8).
• Penicillium salamii can create mould on cured salami and during their maturation (9).
• Penicillium olsonii, fungal endophyte, it can attack beans, tomatoes and sausages, but is a biocontrol agent for Fusarium head blight in wheat and is therefore considered a biological alternative in wheat disease control (10).
• Penicillium milanense isolated in cured meats in Slovenia and Denmark.
• Penicillium brevicompactum is capable of producing mycotoxins in sausages.
• Penicillium chrysogenum hyphomycete fungus that can develop on fruit, vegetables, cereals, cheese, margarine and more (11).
• Penicillium subrubescens a new species that efficiently produces inulinase (12).

The species Talaromyces includes:

• Talaromyces ruber, suitable for enzyme production.
• Talaromyces amestolkiae was found to be potentially pathogenic for immuno-compromised.
• Talaromyces stollii was found to be potentially pathogenic for immuno-compromised.

The most relevant studies on fungi have been selected with a summary of their contents:

Penicillium  studies

References_____________________________________________________________________

(1) Jami MS, García-Estrada C, Barreiro C, Cuadrado AA, Salehi-Najafabadi Z, Martín JF. The Penicillium chrysogenum extracellular proteome. Conversion from a food-rotting strain to a versatile cell factory for white biotechnology. Mol Cell Proteomics. 2010 Dec;9(12):2729-44. doi: 10.1074/mcp.M110.001412. 

(2) Cooper CR Jr, Haycocks NG. Penicillium marneffei: an insurgent species among the penicillia. J Eukaryot Microbiol. 2000 Jan-Feb;47(1):24-8. doi: 10.1111/j.1550-7408.2000.tb00006.x. 

(3) Curtis, P. J., Hemming, H. G., & Unwin, C. H. (1951). Albidin, an antibiotic red pigment from Penicillium albidum. Transactions of the British Mycological Society, 34(3), 332-339.

(4) Balabanova LA, Gafurov YM, Pivkin MV, Terentyeva NA, Likhatskaya GN, Rasskazov VA. An extracellular S1-type nuclease of marine fungus Penicillium melinii. Mar Biotechnol (NY). 2012 Feb;14(1):87-95. doi: 10.1007/s10126-011-9392-5. 

(5) Bai Y, Yi P, Zhang S, Hu J, Pan H. Novel Antioxidants and α-Glycosidase and Protein Tyrosine Phosphatase 1B Inhibitors from an Endophytic Fungus Penicillium brefeldianum F4a. J Fungi (Basel). 2021 Oct 27;7(11):913. doi: 10.3390/jof7110913.

(6) Nguyen VT, Yu NH, Lee Y, Hwang IM, Bui HX, Kim JC. Nematicidal Activity of Cyclopiazonic Acid Derived From Penicillium commune Against Root-Knot Nematodes and Optimization of the Culture Fermentation Process. Front Microbiol. 2021 Nov 24;12:726504. doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2021.726504.

(7) Anelli P, Peterson SW, Haidukowski M, Logrieco AF, Moretti A, Epifani F, Susca A. Penicillium gravinicasei, a new species isolated from cave cheese in Apulia, Italy. Int J Food Microbiol. 2018 Oct 3;282:66-70. doi: 10.1016/j.ijfoodmicro.2018.06.006. 

(8) Shahid MG, Nadeem M, Gulzar A, Saleem M, Rehman HU, Ghafoor GZ, Hayyat MU, Shahzad L, Arif R, Nelofer R. Novel Ergot Alkaloids Production from Penicillium citrinum Employing Response Surface Methodology Technique. Toxins (Basel). 2020 Jun 29;12(7):427. doi: 10.3390/toxins12070427. 

(9) Perrone G, Samson RA, Frisvad JC, Susca A, Gunde-Cimerman N, Epifani F, Houbraken J. Penicillium salamii, a new species occurring during seasoning of dry-cured meat. Int J Food Microbiol. 2015 Jan 16;193:91-8. doi: 10.1016/j.ijfoodmicro.2014.10.023. 

(10) Rojas EC, Jensen B, Jørgensen HJL, Latz MAC, Esteban P, Collinge DB. The Fungal Endophyte Penicillium olsonii ML37 Reduces Fusarium Head Blight by Local Induced Resistance in Wheat Spikes. J Fungi (Basel). 2022 Mar 25;8(4):345. doi: 10.3390/jof8040345. 

(11) Penicillium chrysogenum – scheda micologica ed approfondimenti (microbiologiaitalia.it) 

(12) Mansouri S, Houbraken J, Samson RA, Frisvad JC, Christensen M, Tuthill DE, Koutaniemi S, Hatakka A, Lankinen P. Penicillium subrubescens, a new species efficiently producing inulinase. Antonie Van Leeuwenhoek. 2013 Jun;103(6):1343-57. doi: 10.1007/s10482-013-9915-3.