| Penicillium glaucum | |
|---|---|
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| Gorgonzola an Italian cheese containing "veins" of Penicillium glaucum | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Fungi |
| Phylum: | Ascomycota |
| Class: | Euascomycetes |
| Order: | Eurotiales |
| Family: | Trichomaceae |
| Genus: | Penicillium |
| Species: | P. glaucum |
| Binomial name | |
| Penicillium glaucum |
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Penicillium glaucum is a mold which is used in the making of many types of cheese including the French blue cheeses, Fourme d'Ambert, Gorgonzola, and Stilton.
In 1874, Sir William Roberts, a physician from Manchester noted that cultures of the mold did not display bacterial contamination. Louis Pasteur would build on this discovery, noting that Bacillus anthracis would not grow in the presence of the related mold, Penicillium notatum. Its antibiotic powers were independently discovered and tested on animals by French physician, Ernest Duchesne, but his thesis in 1897 was ignored.
Penicillium glaucum feeds on only one optical isomer of tartaric acid, which makes it extremely useful in advanced higher chemistry projects on chirality.
See also
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