title: A copper-responsive promoter replacement system to investigate gene functions in Trichoderma reesei: a case study in characterizing SAGA genes.
abstract: Trichoderma reesei represents an important workhorse for industrial production of cellulases as well as other proteins. The molecular mechanism underlying the regulation of cellulase production as well as other physiological processes in T. reesei is still insufficiently understood. We constructed a Ptcu1-based promoter substitution cassette that allowed one-step replacement of the endogenous promoter for controlling the target gene expression with copper. We then showed that copper repression of the histone acetyltransferase gene gcn5 phenocopied the gcn5 deletion strain. Using the same strategy, we further characterized the function of another putative Spt-Ada-Gcn5 acetyltransferase (SAGA) complex subunit encoding gene, ada2, in T. reesei. Similar to the repression of gcn5, the addition of copper to the Ptcu1-ada2 strain not only drastically reduced the vegetative growth and conidiation in T. reesei but also severely compromised the induced cellulase gene expression. The developed strategy will thus be potentially useful to probe the biological function of the large fraction of T. reesei genes with unknown functions including those essential genes in the genome to expand its extraordinary biotechnological potential.
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Microbial Technology, School of Life Science, Shandong University, No. 27 Shanda South Road, Jinan, 250100, Shandong, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Fanglin
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Zheng
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Microbial Technology, School of Life Science, Shandong University, No. 27 Shanda South Road, Jinan, 250100, Shandong, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Yanli
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Cao
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Microbial Technology, School of Life Science, Shandong University, No. 27 Shanda South Road, Jinan, 250100, Shandong, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Xinxing
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Lv
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Microbial Technology, School of Life Science, Shandong University, No. 27 Shanda South Road, Jinan, 250100, Shandong, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Lei
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Microbial Technology, School of Life Science, Shandong University, No. 27 Shanda South Road, Jinan, 250100, Shandong, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Chunyan
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Microbial Technology, School of Life Science, Shandong University, No. 27 Shanda South Road, Jinan, 250100, Shandong, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Weixin
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Microbial Technology, School of Life Science, Shandong University, No. 27 Shanda South Road, Jinan, 250100, Shandong, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Guanjun
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Microbial Technology, School of Life Science, Shandong University, No. 27 Shanda South Road, Jinan, 250100, Shandong, People's Republic of China. weifliu@sdu.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Weifeng
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Liu
mesh_terms: D002480:Cellulase / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D003300:Copper / Q000378:metabolism*; D005656:Fungal Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D015966:Gene Expression Regulation, Fungal; D051548:Histone Acetyltransferases / Q000235:genetics*; D011401:Promoter Regions, Genetic / Q000235:genetics*; D013172:Spores, Fungal / Q000235:genetics; D014157:Transcription Factors / Q000235:genetics*; D014242:Trichoderma / Q000235:genetics*
chemical_list: D005656:Fungal Proteins; D014157:Transcription Factors; D003300:Copper; D051548:Histone Acetyltransferases; D002480:Cellulase
keywords: Ada2; Cellulase; Gcn5; Trichoderma reesei; tcu1