Omics Analyses of Trichoderma reesei CBS999.97 and QM6a Indicate the Relevance of Female Fertility to Carbohydrate-Active Enzyme and Transporter Levels

Journal Article · Fri Sep 15 04:00:00 UTC 2017 · Applied and Environmental Microbiology

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1128/AEM.01578-17 · OSTI ID:1419919

Tisch, Doris ^[1]; Pomraning, Kyle R. ^[2]; Collett, James R. ^[3]; Freitag, Michael ^[4]; Baker, Scott E. ^[3]; Chen, Chia -Ling ^[5]; Hsu, Paul Wei-Che ^[5]; Chuang, Yu Chien ^[5]; Schuster, Andre ^[1]; Dattenbock, Christoph ^[6]; Stappler, Eva ^[6]; Sulyok, Michael ^[7]; Bohmdorfer, Stefan ^[8]; Oberlerchner, Josua ^[8]; Wang, Ting -Fang ^[5]; Schmoll, Monika  ^[9]; Drake, Harold L. ^[10]

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1. TU Wien, Vienna (Austria)
2. Pacific Northwest National Lab. (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States); Oregon State Univ., Corvallis, OR (United States)
3. Pacific Northwest National Lab. (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States)
4. Oregon State Univ., Corvallis, OR (United States)
5. Academia Sinica, Taipei (Taiwan)
6. AIT Austrian Institute of Technology, Tulln (Austria)
7. Univ. of Natural Resources and Life Sciences BOKU, Tulln (Austria)
8. Univ. of Natural Resources and Life Sciences Vienna, Tulln (Austria)
9. TU Wien, Vienna (Austria); AIT Austrian Institute of Technology, Tulln (Austria)
10. Univ. of Bayreuth, Bayreuth (Germany)

Here, the filamentous fungus Trichoderma reesei is found predominantly in the tropics but also in more temperate regions, such as Europe, and is widely known as a producer of large amounts of plant cell wall-degrading enzymes. We sequenced the genome of the sexually competent isolate CBS999.97, which is phenotypically different from the female sterile strain QM6a but can cross sexually with QM6a. Transcriptome data for growth on cellulose showed that entire carbohydrate-active enzyme (CAZyme) families are consistently differentially regulated between these strains. We evaluated backcrossed strains of both mating types, which acquired female fertility from CBS999.97 but maintained a mostly QM6a genetic background, and we could thereby distinguish between the effects of strain background and female fertility or mating type. We found clear regulatory differences associated with female fertility and female sterility, including regulation of CAZyme and transporter genes. Analysis of carbon source utilization, transcriptomes, and secondary metabolites in these strains revealed that only a few changes in gene regulation are consistently correlated with different mating types. Different strain backgrounds (QM6a versus CBS999.97) resulted in the most significant alterations in the transcriptomes and in carbon source utilization, with decreased growth of CBS999.97 on several amino acids (for example proline or alanine), which further correlated with the downregulation of genes involved in the respective pathways. In combination, our findings support a role of fertility-associated processes in physiology and gene regulation and are of high relevance for the use of sexual crossing in combining the characteristics of two compatible strains or quantitative trait locus (QTL) analysis.

• Research Organization: Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE
• Grant/Contract Number: AC05-76RL01830
• OSTI ID: 1419919
• Report Number(s): PNNL-SA--129552; KP1704020
• Journal Information: Applied and Environmental Microbiology, Journal Name: Applied and Environmental Microbiology Journal Issue: 22 Vol. 83; ISSN 0099-2240
• Publisher: American Society for MicrobiologyCopyright Statement
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English