DSM to publish A niger genome sequence

Dutch pharmaceutical and nutritional ingredients firm DSM says that it will publish the fully-sequenced genome of the fungus Aspergillus niger in the February issue of the journal Nature Biotechnology. The company added that the data is derived from a research project in which it collaborated with 29 international research groups.

DSM explained that it utilizes the organism, which has a genome consisting of 33.9 billion base pairs and over 14,000 unique genes, for the production of enzymes and other compounds that are used by, among others, its food ingredients operation to improve shelf-life, nutritional quality and taste. The firm added that the project had led to the filing of several patents, with the resulting data being employed in the development of new products such as PeptoPro and PreventASe.