Molecular breeding of the basidiomycete Coprinus cinereus strains with high lignin-decolorization and -degradation activities using novel heterologous protein expression vectors

Two chromosome-integrating vectors, pLC1 and pLC2, were used. The former is the pUC19-based vector carrying the Lentinus edodes ras gene promoter and priA gene terminator, and the latter is the pBR322-based vector carrying the promoter and terminator of the priA gene. The manganese (II) peroxidase (MnP) cDNA (mnpc) derived from Pleurotus ostreatus was fused between the promoter and terminator of pLC1 and pLC2, yielding the recombinant plasmids pLC1-mnp and pLC2-mnp. These plasmids were introduced into protoplasts of the Coprinus cinereus trp1 strain with the C. cinereus TRP1-containing plasmid pCc1001 by co-transformation. Two Trp⁺ transformants for each plasmid, showing clearly higher lignin-decolorization activities, were obtained through introduction of pLC1-mnp and pLC2-mnp. Southern-blot analysis revealed that the four transformants all possess the mnpc sequence on their chromosomes. One Trp⁺ MnP⁺ transformant (named TF2-7), which was derived from the introduction of pLC2-mnp and carried the highest number of copies (approx. 10) of mnpc, showed remarkably high lignin-decolorization and -degradation activities; at the time of cultivation when only 35%–40% of the lignin was decolored and degraded by the control Trp⁺ transformant obtained by the introduction of pCc1001 alone, almost all of the lignin was decolored and degraded by TF2-7. Received: 20 October 1997 / Accepted: 31 October 1997