Thursday April 1
Parallel session 8: Fungal Biotechnology
PS8.1
Roel Bovenberg,
Marco van den Berg
roel.bovenberg@dsm.com
Production of penicillin by Penicillium chrysogenum is a classic hallmark of
fungal biotechnology. Since its famous discovery by Fleming and initial
production during the Second World War penicillin production has increased
enormously as a result of strain and process improvements. Using metabolic
pathway engineering high yielding penicillin strains were also converted in
efficient cephalosporin producers. Recently, we determined the full genome
sequence of Penicillium and developed post genomic tools to study the
Penicillium strain lineage for mutations acquired in the long optimization
process. In addition basic studies on fungal metabolism, microbody formation and
transporters have increased our knowledge on penicillin formation significantly.
The presentation will cover both basic and applied aspects of the research done.
PS8.2
Fungal enzyme expression as a unit operation in the production of cellulosic
ethanol
N. Jamie Ryding
Verenium Corporation
jamie.ryding@verenium.com
Verenium is a leader in the development of
next-generation cellulosic ethanol as well as the development of
Specialty Enzyme Products. Verenium’s cellulosic ethanol process utilizes
on-site, fungal enzyme production to supply the enzymes for the saccharification
of the cellulose fiber stream in a continuous saccharification-fermentation
process. Fungal enzyme production
is a significant unit operation within the facility and successful integration
of this unit operation into the overall process presents a number of challenges
and opportunities. These experiences will be discussed in the context of the
operation of Verenium’s 1.4 MGY demonstration plant in
PS8.3
Genomic and transcriptomic analysis of
Thielavia terrestris – a thermophilic ascomycete of biotechnological
interest
Randy M. Berka[1]
Adrian Tsang[2] Robert Otillar[3] Jeremy Schmutz[9]
Jane Grimwood[9] Asaf Salamov[9]
Bernard Henrissat[4] Pedro M.
Coutinho[4] Vincent Lombard[4] John Clutterbuck[5]
Ian Paulsen[6] Scott Baker[7] Jon Magnuson[7]
Don Natvig[8] Justin Powlowski[2] Paul Harris[1]
Ian Reid[2] Amy Powell[10] Diego Martinez[8]
Mark Wogulis[1] Alfredo Lopez de Leon[1] Michael W. Rey[1]
and Igor V. Gregoriev[3]
1Novozymes,
Inc., 2Concordia University, 3Joint Genome Institute,
4Architecture et Fonction des Macromolecules Biologiques Universite
Aix-Marseille, 5University of Glasgow, 6Macquarie
University, 7Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, 8University
of New Mexico, 9JGI-HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology 10Sandia
National Laboratories
ramb@novozymes.com
Thielavia terrestris
(anamorph = Acremonium alabamense) is
a thermophilic ascomycete that is of interest as a potential source of
thermostable enzymes for biotechnological applications such as biomass
decomposition. A high-quality draft
genome sequence of T. terrestris NRRL
8126 was recently completed at the Joint Genome Institute.
Subsequent mining, editing, and annotation efforts are in progress by an
international team of collaborators.
The genome assembly comprises eight scaffolds (231 contigs) spanning 36.9
Mbp (sequence coverage = 10.15x).
The overall G+C content, excluding mitochondrial DNA, was approximately 58%.
The presence of telomeric repeats [(TTAGGG)n/(CCCTAA)n] at both ends of
scaffolds 1,3, 4 and 6, and at one end of scaffolds 2, 5, 7 and 8 suggests that
the assembly contains nearly complete chromosome sequences. Among the 9815
predicted protein-coding genes in the
Thielavia genome, >750 transposases were identified on the basis sequence
identity with Aspergillus nidulans
transposons, and a sizeable proportion of these appear to be degraded by RIP.
Approximately 6-8% of the gene models are predicted to encode secreted
proteins such as oxidoreductases, peptidases and a variety of glycoside
hydrolases. Compared to the well-studied cellulolytic fungus
Trichoderma reesei, an obvious
expansion of genes encoding family GH61 proteins was noted.
Nimblegen expression arrays were deployed in a preliminary investigation
to compare the transcription profiles of
T. terrestris cells grown on several substrates (e.g.,
glucose, cellulose, xylan, soy flour), and induction of genes predicted to
encode cellulases and hemicellulases was observed on cellulose and xylan,
respectively. A comparison of
transcriptome data for cells grown in glucose medium at 34°C and 45°C suggested
that growth of T. terrestris at the
higher temperature may induce expression of genes encoding membrane proteins,
sterol biosynthetic enzymes, heat shock proteins/chaperones and components of
the ubiquitin proteasome pathway.