Monascus pilosus is usually cultivated on rice because of monacolin K. We focused on pigment production in submerged liquid culture (SLC) where M. pilosus produced different pigments compared to M. purpureus and M. ruber. From the group of classic Monascus pigments, there were formed mostly compounds with a five-carbon side chain, and the dominant pigment was monascuspiloin, a yellow pigment structurally similar to monascin. In SLC, previously undescribed patterns affecting pigment formation were observed, such as the Crabtree effect, carbon catabolite repression of pigments caused by glucose and other mono-/disaccharides, as well as nitrogen regulation, particularly repression of pigment formation by ammonium sulfate. The highest pigment concentration in the extract was obtained using an organic nitrogen source, specifically 340 mg/L for yellow pigments utilizing a combination of sucrose and tryptone, 346 mg/L for orange pigments using starch and tryptone, and 75 mg/L for red pigments using lactose and tryptone.

Department of Biomedical Engineering Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Communication Brno University of Technology 601 90 Brno Czechia

Division of Clinical Microbiology and Immunology Department of Laboratory Medicine Faculty of Medicine Masaryk University 602 00 Brno Czechia

Division of Clinical Microbiology and Immunology Department of Laboratory Medicine University Hospital Brno 625 00 Brno Czechia

University of Chemistry and Technology 160 00 Prague Czechia

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