Differential transcriptomic profiling of filamentous fungus during solid-state and submerged fermentation and identification of an essential regulatory gene that directly regulated cellulase and xylanase gene expression.

Background: Solid-state fermentation (SSF) mimics the natural decay environment of soil fungi and can be employed to investigate the production of plant biomass-degrading enzymes. However, knowledge on the transcriptional regulation of fungal genes during SSF remains limited. Herein, transcriptional profiling was performed on the filamentous fungus strain HP7-1 cultivated in medium containing wheat bran plus rice straw (WR) under SSF (WR_SSF) and submerged fermentation (WR_SmF; control) conditions. Novel key transcription factors (TFs) regulating fungal cellulase and xylanase gene expression during SSF were identified via comparative transcriptomic and genetic analyses.

Results: Expression of major cellulase genes was higher under WR_SSF condition than that under WR_SmF, but the expression of genes involved in the citric acid cycle was repressed under WR_SSF condition. Fifty-six candidate regulatory genes for cellulase production were screened out from transcriptomic profiling of . HP7-1 for knockout experiments in the parental strain ∆, resulting in 43 deletion mutants including 18 constructed in the previous studies. Enzyme activity assays revealed 14 novel regulatory genes involved in cellulase production in . during SSF. Remarkably, deletion of the essential regulatory gene , encoding Multiprotein Bridging Factor 1, resulted in doubled cellulase and xylanase production at 2 days after induction during both SSF and SmF. dynamically and differentially regulated transcription of a subset of cellulase and xylanase genes during SSF and SmF, and conferred stress resistance. Importantly, PoxMBF1 bound specifically to the putative promoters of major cellulase and xylanase genes in vitro.

Conclusions: We revealed differential transcriptional regulation of . during SSF and SmF, and identified PoxMBF1, a novel TF that directly regulates cellulase and xylanase gene expression during SSF and SmF. These findings expand our understanding of regulatory mechanisms of cellulase and xylanase gene expression during fungal fermentation.