Genetic Transformation of the Filamentous Fungus Pseudogymnoascus verrucosus of Antarctic Origin

Cold-adapted fungi isolated from Antarctica, in particular those belonging to the genus , are producers of secondary metabolites with interesting bioactive properties as well as enzymes with potential biotechnological applications. However, at genetic level, the study of these fungi has been hindere...

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Published inFrontiers in microbiology Vol. 10; p. 2675
Main Authors Díaz, Anaí, Villanueva, Pablo, Oliva, Vicente, Gil-Durán, Carlos, Fierro, Francisco, Chávez, Renato, Vaca, Inmaculada
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Switzerland Frontiers Media S.A 22.11.2019
Subjects
Antarctica
electroporation
Microbiology
protoplasts
Pseudogymnoascus
transformation
Antarctica
electroporation
protoplasts
transformation
Pseudogymnoascus
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Summary:Cold-adapted fungi isolated from Antarctica, in particular those belonging to the genus , are producers of secondary metabolites with interesting bioactive properties as well as enzymes with potential biotechnological applications. However, at genetic level, the study of these fungi has been hindered by the lack of suitable genetic tools such as transformation systems. In fungi, the availability of transformation systems is a key to address the functional analysis of genes related with the production of a particular metabolite or enzyme. To the best of our knowledge, the transformation of strains of Antarctic origin has not been achieved yet. In this work, we describe for the first time the successful transformation of a strain of Antarctic origin, using two methodologies: the polyethylene glycol (PEG)-mediated transformation, and the electroporation of germinated conidia. We achieved transformation efficiencies of 15.87 ± 5.16 transformants per μg of DNA and 2.67 ± 1.15 transformants per μg of DNA for PEG-mediated transformation and electroporation of germinated conidia, respectively. These results indicate that PEG-mediated transformation is a very efficient method for the transformation of this Antarctic fungus. The genetic transformation of described in this work represents the first example of transformation of a filamentous fungus of Antarctic origin.
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These authors have contributed equally to this work
This article was submitted to Fungi and Their Interactions, a section of the journal Frontiers in Microbiology
Edited by: Stefanie Pöggeler, University of Göttingen, Germany
Reviewed by: Skander Elleuche, Miltenyi Biotec, Germany; Daniela Nordzieke, University of Göttingen, Germany
ISSN:1664-302X
1664-302X
DOI:10.3389/fmicb.2019.02675