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Sexual development in the industrial workhorse Trichoderma reesei.

ABSTRACT: Filamentous fungi are indispensable biotechnological tools for the production of organic chemicals, enzymes, and antibiotics. Most of the strains used for industrial applications have been--and still are--screened and improved by classical mutagenesis. Sexual crossing approaches would yield considerable advantages for research and industrial strain improvement, but interestingly, industrially applied filamentous fungal species have so far been considered to be largely asexual. This is also true for the ascomycete Trichoderma reesei (anamorph of Hypocrea jecorina), which is used for production of cellulolytic and hemicellulolytic enzymes. In this study, we report that T. reesei QM6a has a MAT1-2 mating type locus, and the identification of its respective mating type counterpart, MAT1-1, in natural isolates of H. jecorina, thus proving that this is a heterothallic species. After being considered asexual since its discovery more than 50 years ago, we were now able to induce sexual reproduction of T. reesei QM6a and obtained fertilized stromata and mature ascospores. This sexual crossing approach therefore opens up perspectives for biotechnologically important fungi. Our findings provide a tool for fast and efficient industrial strain improvement in T. reesei, thus boosting research toward economically feasible biofuel production. In addition, knowledge of MAT-loci and sexual crossing techniques will facilitate research with other Trichoderma spp. relevant for agriculture and human health.

SUBMITTER: Seidl V

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2728994 | biostudies-literature | 2009 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Sexual development in the industrial workhorse Trichoderma reesei.

Seidl Verena V Seibel Christian C Kubicek Christian P CP Schmoll Monika M

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 20090810 33

Filamentous fungi are indispensable biotechnological tools for the production of organic chemicals, enzymes, and antibiotics. Most of the strains used for industrial applications have been--and still are--screened and improved by classical mutagenesis. Sexual crossing approaches would yield considerable advantages for research and industrial strain improvement, but interestingly, industrially applied filamentous fungal species have so far been considered to be largely asexual. This is also true ...[more]

PMID: 19667182

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Project description:BackgroundFilamentous fungi are frequently used as production platforms in industrial biotechnology. Most of the strains involved were known as reproducing exclusively asexually thereby preventing the application of conventional strain breeding techniques. In the last decade, evidence was obtained that a number of these imperfect fungi possess a sexual life cycle, too. Trichoderma reesei, an industrial producer of enzymes for food, feed and biorefinery purposes, is heterothallic and takes a special position among industrially utilized species as all industrial strains are derived from the single MAT1-2 isolate QM6a. Consequently, strain improvement by crossing is not feasible within this strain line as this necessitates a MAT1-1 mating partner. Simply switching the mating type in one of the mating partners to MAT1-1, however, is not sufficient to produce a genotype capable of sexual reproduction with QM6a MAT1-2.ResultsWe have used a systems biology approach to identify genes restoring sexual reproduction in the QM6a strain line. To this end, T. reesei QM6a was crossed with the MAT1-1 wild-type strain CBS999.97. The descendants were backcrossed 8-times in two lineages with QM6a to obtain mating competent MAT1-1 strains with a minimal set of CBS999.97 specific genes. Comparative genome analysis identified a total of 73 genes of which two-encoding an unknown C2H2/ankyrin protein and a homolog of the WD-protein HAM5-were identified to be essential for fruiting body formation. The introduction of a functional ham5 allele in a mating type switched T. reesei QM6a allowed sexual crossing with the parental strain QM6a.ConclusionThe finding that Trichoderma reesei is generally capable of undergoing sexual reproduction even under laboratory conditions raised hope for the applicability of classical breeding techniques with this fungus as known for plants and certain yeasts. The discovery that the wild-type isolate QM6a was female sterile, however, precluded any progress along that line. With the discovery of the genetic cause of female sterility and the creation of an engineered fertile strain we now provide the basis to establish sexual crossing in this fungus and herald a new era of strain improvement in T. reesei.

Dataset Information

Sexual development in the industrial workhorse Trichoderma reesei.

Publications

Sexual development in the industrial workhorse Trichoderma reesei.

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