The Complete Mitochondrial Genome of Penicillium expansum: Insights Into the Fungal Evolution and Phylogeny

Penicillium expansum is an important phytopathogenic fungus that causes blue mold disease. In this study, the novel mitochondrial genome of P. expansum was sequenced, assembled, annotated, and compared with the previously published Penicillium mitogenomes. P. expansum mitogenome is composed of circular DNA molecules with a genome size of 25,496 bp. It encodes 16 protein-encoding genes (PCGs), two rRNA genes, and 25 tRNA genes. Comparative analysis with six other Penicillium species revealed that gene length, GC content, AT skew, and GC skew were variable among the core protein-coding genes. The Penicillium species' gene synteny analysis identified several gene rearrangements. Among the core 15 PCGs, atp8 had the lowest K2P genetic distance, which shows that this gene is highly conserved. The Ka/Ks value of most PCGs was less than 1, which shows that these genes have undergone purifying selection. Phylogenetic analysis based on 14 concatenated core mitochondrial genes revealed that P. expansum shares a close relationship with P. solitum. This study served as a first report on the complete mitochondrial genome of P. expansum and its comparative analysis that will contribute to population genetics and rapid evolutionary studies among Penicillium species.