noun
definition
Any of the blue-green fungi, of the genus Penicillium, that are used in the manufacture of cheeses, and are an important source of antibiotics.
Examples of penicillium in a Sentence
Thus, Pasteur showed that Penicillium glaucum, when grown in an aqueous solution of ammonium racemate, decomposed the dextro-tartrate, leaving the laevotartrate, and the solution which was originally inactive to polarized light became dextro-rotatory.
It started when penicillin was extracted from the mold penicillium notatum in the 1930s.
However, several molds of the genus penicillium are capable of producing mycotoxins which may produce some adverse health effect.
Division A comprises (a) the true Ascomycetes, of which the moulds Eurotium and Penicillium are examples, and (b) the Hemiasci, which includes the yeasts.
In some of the true Ascomycetes, such as Penicillium glaucum, the conidia if grown in saccharine solutions, which they have the power of fermenting, develop single cell yeast-like forms, and do not - at any rate for a time - produce again the characteristic branching mycelium.
Next he sought to prepare the inactive form of the acid by artificial means; and after great and long-continued labour he succeeded, and was led to the commencement of his classical researches on fermentation, by the observation that when the inactive acid was placed in contact with a special form of mould (Penicillium glaucum) the right-handed acid alone was destroyed, the left-handed variety remained unchanged.
The inactive mixture may be resolved into its active components by fractional crystallization of the cinchonine salt, when the salt of the dextro modification separates first; or the ammonium salt may be fermented by Penicillium glaucum, when the laevo form is destroyed and the dextro form remains untouched; on the other' hand, Saccharomyces ellipsoideus destroys the dextro form, but does not touch the laevo form.
While some moulds (Penicillium, Aspergillus) can utilize almost any organic food-materials, other fungi are more restricted in their choice - e.g.
Among the enzymes already extracted from fungi are invertases (yeasts, moulds, &c.), which split cane-sugar and other complex sugars with hydrolysis into simpler sugars such as dextrose and levulose; diastases, which convert starches into sugars (Aspergillus, &c.); cytases, which dissolve cellulose similarly (Botrytis, &c.); peptases, using the term as a general one for all enzymes which convert proteids into peptones and other bodies (Penicillium, &c.); lipases, which break up fatty oils (Empusa, Phycomyces, &c.); oxydases, which bring about the oxidations and changes of colour observed in Boletus, and zymase, extracted by Buchner from yeast, which brings about the conversion of sugar into alcohol and carbondioxide.
The same fact is indicated by the wide range of organic substances which can be utilized by Penicillium and other moulds, and by the behaviour of parasitic fungi which destroy various cell-contents and tissues.
More generally the hypha below the septum grows forwards again, and repeats this process several times before the terminal conidium falls, and so a chain of conidia results, the oldest of which terminates the series (Erysiphe); when the primary branch has thus formed a basipetal series, branches may arise from below and again repeat this process, thus forming a tuft (Penicillium).
Thus in Penicillium, Eurotium, Erysiphe, &c., hyphal ends which are the initials of ascogenous branches, are invested by closely packed branches at an early stage of development, and the asci develop inside what has by that time become a complete investment.
The Perisporiaceae are saprophytic forms, the two chief genera being Aspergillus and Penicillium.
Penicillium expansum [1] Does not produce penicillin; causes disease in apples.
The antibiotic penicillin was the first to be isolated from the fungus penicillium notatum.