Impact of maturation and growth temperature on transcription profiles of Penicillium roqueforti conidia

Purpose: The goal of this study is to compare differences between Penicillium roqueforti conidia from various conditions shown to affect heat-resistance to identify genes possibly related to heat-resistance using RNA-seq. Methods: mRNA from Penicillium roqueforti conidia produced at different temperatures (15C, 25C or 30C) and different cultivation times (3, 5, 7 or 10 days) was extracted, in triplicate, and sequenced with Illumina NextSeq500. The sequence reads that passed quality filters were analyzed using Hisat2 followed by Cufflinks. Results: we mapped about 19 million sequence reads per sample to the Penicillium roqueforti genome (build LCP96 04111) and identified 9723 transcripts in the conidia. Data analysis revealed a subset of 33 genes showing increased expression in culture conditions that increase heat-resistance. Conclusions: Our study generated insight into multiple genes that are likely involved in the heat-resistance of Penicillium roqueforti. Overall design: mRNA profiles of conidia from 3,5,7, and 10 day old Penicillium roqueforti cultures grown at 25C, and profiles of conidia from 7 day old cultures grown at 15C and 30C were generated, in triplicate, with deep sequencing using Illumina NextSeq 500.