CreA-mediated repression of gene expression occurs at low monosaccharide levels during fungal plant biomass conversion in a time and substrate dependent manner.

Carbon catabolite repression enables fungi to utilize the most favourable carbon source in the environment, and is mediated by a key regulator, CreA, in most fungi. CreA-mediated regulation has mainly been studied at high monosaccharide concentrations, an uncommon situation in most natural biotopes. In nature, many fungi rely on plant biomass as their major carbon source by producing enzymes to degrade plant cell wall polysaccharides into metabolizable sugars. To determine the role of CreA when fungi grow in more natural conditions and in particular with respect to degradation and conversion of plant cell walls, we compared transcriptomes of a creA deletion and reference strain of the ascomycete Aspergillus niger during growth on sugar beet pulp and wheat bran. Transcriptomics, extracellular sugar concentrations and growth profiling of A. niger on a variety of carbon sources, revealed that also under conditions with low concentrations of free monosaccharides, CreA has a major effect on gene expression in a strong time and substrate composition dependent manner. In addition, we compared the CreA regulon from five fungi during their growth on crude plant biomass or cellulose. It showed that CreA commonly regulated genes related to carbon metabolism, sugar transport and plant cell wall degrading enzymes across different species. We therefore conclude that CreA has a crucial role for fungi also in adapting to low sugar concentrations as occurring in their natural biotopes, which is supported by the presence of CreA orthologs in nearly all fungi.

Application of the Safe-By-Design Concept in Crop Breeding Innovation.

The present paper proposes the application of the safe-by-design concept to crop breeding innovation with the aim to accommodate safety considerations for new agricultural food and feed products. Safe-by-design can be implemented in all stages of the innovation cycle of agricultural products, from the early stages of research and development towards the post-market stage. Our proposed application of safe-by-design can be part of "responsible research and innovation" concepts, because they share features such as risk prevention strategies and a participatory approach. Early awareness of potential safety issues can guide the development of agricultural products towards safe options, both at the process and product level, and thus may help to reduce extensive pre-market assessment studies that might otherwise be needed further downstream for regulatory product approval. Here, it is discussed how the proposed safe-by-design approach can be introduced into the development of safe food crops using emerging technologies, such as gene editing and synthetic biology, and how this may help to safeguard the safety of our food and feed supply in the light of the ongoing global innovations in agricultural crop breeding.

Transcriptome analysis of Aspergillus niger xlnR and xkiA mutants grown on corn Stover and soybean hulls reveals a highly complex regulatory network.

BACKGROUND: Enzymatic plant biomass degradation by fungi is a highly complex process and one of the leading challenges in developing a biobased economy. Some industrial fungi (e.g. Aspergillus niger) have a long history of use with respect to plant biomass degradation and for that reason have become 'model' species for this topic. A. niger is a major industrial enzyme producer that has a broad ability to degrade plant based polysaccharides. A. niger wild-type, the (hemi-)cellulolytic regulator (xlnR) and xylulokinase (xkiA1) mutant strains were grown on a monocot (corn stover, CS) and dicot (soybean hulls, SBH) substrate. The xkiA1 mutant is unable to utilize the pentoses D-xylose and L-arabinose and the polysaccharide xylan, and was previously shown to accumulate inducers for the (hemi-)cellulolytic transcriptional activator XlnR and the arabinanolytic transcriptional activator AraR in the presence of pentoses, resulting in overexpression of their target genes. The xlnR mutant has reduced growth on xylan and down-regulation of its target genes. The mutants therefore have a similar phenotype on xylan, but an opposite transcriptional effect. D-xylose and L-arabinose are the most abundant monosaccharides after D-glucose in nearly all plant-derived biomass materials. In this study we evaluated the effect of the xlnR and xkiA1 mutation during growth on two pentose-rich substrates by transcriptome analysis. RESULTS: Particular attention was given to CAZymes, metabolic pathways and transcription factors related to the plant biomass degradation. Genes coding for the main enzymes involved in plant biomass degradation were down-regulated at the beginning of the growth on CS and SBH. However, at a later time point, significant differences were found in the expression profiles of both mutants on CS compared to SBH. CONCLUSION: This study demonstrates the high complexity of the plant biomass degradation process by fungi, by showing that mutant strains with fairly straightforward phenotypes on pure mono- and polysaccharides, have much less clear-cut phenotypes and transcriptomes on crude plant biomass.

Myceliophthora thermophila Xyr1 is predominantly involved in xylan degradation and xylose catabolism.

BACKGROUND: Myceliophthora thermophila is a thermophilic ascomycete fungus that is used as a producer of enzyme cocktails used in plant biomass saccharification. Further development of this species as an industrial enzyme factory requires a detailed understanding of its regulatory systems driving the production of plant biomass-degrading enzymes. In this study, we analyzed the function of MtXlr1, an ortholog of the (hemi-)cellulolytic regulator XlnR first identified in another industrially relevant fungus, Aspergillus niger. RESULTS: The Mtxlr1 gene was deleted and the resulting strain was compared to the wild type using growth profiling and transcriptomics. The deletion strain was unable to grow on xylan and d-xylose, but showed only a small growth reduction on l-arabinose, and grew similar to the wild type on Avicel and cellulose. These results were supported by the transcriptome analyses which revealed reduction of genes encoding xylan-degrading enzymes, enzymes of the pentose catabolic pathway and putative pentose transporters. In contrast, no or minimal effects were observed for the expression of cellulolytic genes. CONCLUSIONS: Myceliophthora thermophila MtXlr1 controls the expression of xylanolytic genes and genes involved in pentose transport and catabolism, but has no significant effects on the production of cellulases. It therefore resembles more the role of its ortholog in Neurospora crassa, rather than the broader role described for this regulator in A. niger and Trichoderma reesei. By revealing the range of genes controlled by MtXlr1, our results provide the basic knowledge for targeted strain improvement by overproducing or constitutively activating this regulator, to further improve the biotechnological value of M. thermophila.

Blocking hexose entry into glycolysis activates alternative metabolic conversion of these sugars and upregulates pentose metabolism in Aspergillus nidulans.

BACKGROUND: Plant biomass is the most abundant carbon source for many fungal species. In the biobased industry fungi, are used to produce lignocellulolytic enzymes to degrade agricultural waste biomass. Here we evaluated if it would be possible to create an Aspergillus nidulans strain that releases, but does not metabolize hexoses from plant biomass. For this purpose, metabolic mutants were generated that were impaired in glycolysis, by using hexokinase (hxkA) and glucokinase (glkA) negative strains. To prevent repression of enzyme production due to the hexose accumulation, strains were generated that combined these mutations with a deletion in creA, the repressor involved in regulating preferential use of different carbon catabolic pathways. RESULTS: Phenotypic analysis revealed reduced growth for the hxkA1 glkA4 mutant on wheat bran. However, hexoses did not accumulate during growth of the mutants on wheat bran, suggesting that glucose metabolism is re-routed towards alternative carbon catabolic pathways. The creAΔ4 mutation in combination with preventing initial phosphorylation in glycolysis resulted in better growth than the hxkA/glkA mutant and an increased expression of pentose catabolic and pentose phosphate pathway genes. This indicates that the reduced ability to use hexoses as carbon sources created a shift towards the pentose fraction of wheat bran as a major carbon source to support growth. CONCLUSION: Blocking the direct entry of hexoses to glycolysis activates alternative metabolic conversion of these sugars in A. nidulans during growth on plant biomass, but also upregulates conversion of other sugars, such as pentoses.

In vivo functional analysis of L-rhamnose metabolic pathway in Aspergillus niger: a tool to identify the potential inducer of RhaR.

BACKGROUND: The genes of the non-phosphorylative L-rhamnose catabolic pathway have been identified for several yeast species. In Schefferomyces stipitis, all L-rhamnose pathway genes are organized in a cluster, which is conserved in Aspergillus niger, except for the lra-4 ortholog (lraD). The A. niger cluster also contains the gene encoding the L-rhamnose responsive transcription factor (RhaR) that has been shown to control the expression of genes involved in L-rhamnose release and catabolism. RESULT: In this paper, we confirmed the function of the first three putative L-rhamnose utilisation genes from A. niger through gene deletion. We explored the identity of the inducer of the pathway regulator (RhaR) through expression analysis of the deletion mutants grown in transfer experiments to L-rhamnose and L-rhamnonate. Reduced expression of L-rhamnose-induced genes on L-rhamnose in lraA and lraB deletion strains, but not on L-rhamnonate (the product of LraB), demonstrate that the inducer of the pathway is of L-rhamnonate or a compound downstream of it. Reduced expression of these genes in the lraC deletion strain on L-rhamnonate show that it is in fact a downstream product of L-rhamnonate. CONCLUSION: This work showed that the inducer of RhaR is beyond L-rhamnonate dehydratase (LraC) and is likely to be the 2-keto-3-L-deoxyrhamnonate.

High resolution visualization and exo-proteomics reveal the physiological role of XlnR and AraR in plant biomass colonization and degradation by Aspergillus niger.

In A. niger, two transcription factors, AraR and XlnR, regulate the production of enzymes involved in degradation of arabinoxylan and catabolism of the released l-arabinose and d-xylose. Deletion of both araR and xlnR in leads to reduced production of (hemi)cellulolytic enzymes and reduced growth on arabinan, arabinogalactan and xylan. In this study, we investigated the colonization and degradation of wheat bran by the A. niger reference strain CBS 137562 and araR/xlnR regulatory mutants using high-resolution microscopy and exo-proteomics. We discovered that wheat bran flakes have a 'rough' and 'smooth' surface with substantially different affinity towards fungal hyphae. While colonization of the rough side was possible for all strains, the xlnR mutants struggled to survive on the smooth side of the wheat bran particles after 20 and 40 h post inoculation. Impaired colonization ability of the smooth surface of wheat bran was linked to reduced potential of ΔxlnR to secrete arabinoxylan and cellulose-degrading enzymes and indicates that XlnR is the major regulator that drives colonization of wheat bran in A. niger.

Combinatorial control of gene expression in Aspergillus niger grown on sugar beet pectin.

Aspergillus niger produces an arsenal of extracellular enzymes that allow synergistic degradation of plant biomass found in its environment. Pectin is a heteropolymer abundantly present in the primary cell wall of plants. The complex structure of pectin requires multiple enzymes to act together. Production of pectinolytic enzymes in A. niger is highly regulated, which allows flexible and efficient capture of nutrients. So far, three transcriptional activators have been linked to regulation of pectin degradation in A. niger. The L-rhamnose-responsive regulator RhaR controls the production of enzymes that degrade rhamnogalacturonan-I. The L-arabinose-responsive regulator AraR controls the production of enzymes that decompose the arabinan and arabinogalactan side chains of rhamnogalacturonan-II. The D-galacturonic acid-responsive regulator GaaR controls the production of enzymes that act on the polygalacturonic acid backbone of pectin. This project aims to better understand how RhaR, AraR and GaaR co-regulate pectin degradation. For that reason, we constructed single, double and triple disruptant strains of these regulators and analyzed their growth phenotype and pectinolytic gene expression in A. niger grown on sugar beet pectin.

Comparative genomics reveals high biological diversity and specific adaptations in the industrially and medically important fungal genus Aspergillus.

BACKGROUND: The fungal genus Aspergillus is of critical importance to humankind. Species include those with industrial applications, important pathogens of humans, animals and crops, a source of potent carcinogenic contaminants of food, and an important genetic model. The genome sequences of eight aspergilli have already been explored to investigate aspects of fungal biology, raising questions about evolution and specialization within this genus. RESULTS: We have generated genome sequences for ten novel, highly diverse Aspergillus species and compared these in detail to sister and more distant genera. Comparative studies of key aspects of fungal biology, including primary and secondary metabolism, stress response, biomass degradation, and signal transduction, revealed both conservation and diversity among the species. Observed genomic differences were validated with experimental studies. This revealed several highlights, such as the potential for sex in asexual species, organic acid production genes being a key feature of black aspergilli, alternative approaches for degrading plant biomass, and indications for the genetic basis of stress response. A genome-wide phylogenetic analysis demonstrated in detail the relationship of the newly genome sequenced species with other aspergilli. CONCLUSIONS: Many aspects of biological differences between fungal species cannot be explained by current knowledge obtained from genome sequences. The comparative genomics and experimental study, presented here, allows for the first time a genus-wide view of the biological diversity of the aspergilli and in many, but not all, cases linked genome differences to phenotype. Insights gained could be exploited for biotechnological and medical applications of fungi.

A novel L-arabinose-responsive regulator discovered in the rice-blast fungus Pyricularia oryzae (Magnaporthe oryzae).

In this study we identified the L-arabinose-responsive regulator of Pyricularia oryzae that regulates L-arabinose release and catabolism. Previously we identified the Zn2Cys6 transcription factor (TF), AraR, that has this role in the Trichocomaceae family (Eurotiales), but is absent in other fungi. Candidate Zn2Cys6 TF genes were selected according to their transcript profiles on L-arabinose. Deletion mutants of these genes were screened for their growth phenotype on L-arabinose. One mutant, named Δara1, was further analyzed. Our analysis demonstrated that Ara1 from P. oryzae is the functional analog of AraR from A. niger, while there is no significant sequence similarity between them.

Genetic Interaction of Aspergillus nidulans galR, xlnR and araR in Regulating D-Galactose and L-Arabinose Release and Catabolism Gene Expression.

In Aspergillus nidulans, the xylanolytic regulator XlnR and the arabinanolytic regulator AraR co-regulate pentose catabolism. In nature, the pentose sugars D-xylose and L-arabinose are both main building blocks of the polysaccharide arabinoxylan. In pectin and arabinogalactan, these two monosaccharides are found in combination with D-galactose. GalR, the regulator that responds to the presence of D-galactose, regulates the D-galactose catabolic pathway. In this study we investigated the possible interaction between XlnR, AraR and GalR in pentose and/or D-galactose catabolism in A. nidulans. Growth phenotypes and metabolic gene expression profiles were studied in single, double and triple disruptant A. nidulans strains of the genes encoding these paralogous transcription factors. Our results demonstrate that AraR and XlnR not only control pentose catabolic pathway genes, but also genes of the oxido-reductive D-galactose catabolic pathway. This suggests an interaction between three transcriptional regulators in D-galactose catabolism. Conversely, GalR is not involved in regulation of pentose catabolism, but controls only genes of the oxido-reductive D-galactose catabolic pathway.

Closely related fungi employ diverse enzymatic strategies to degrade plant biomass.

BACKGROUND: Plant biomass is the major substrate for the production of biofuels and biochemicals, as well as food, textiles and other products. It is also the major carbon source for many fungi and enzymes of these fungi are essential for the depolymerization of plant polysaccharides in industrial processes. This is a highly complex process that involves a large number of extracellular enzymes as well as non-hydrolytic proteins, whose production in fungi is controlled by a set of transcriptional regulators. Aspergillus species form one of the best studied fungal genera in this field, and several species are used for the production of commercial enzyme cocktails. RESULTS: It is often assumed that related fungi use similar enzymatic approaches to degrade plant polysaccharides. In this study we have compared the genomic content and the enzymes produced by eight Aspergilli for the degradation of plant biomass. All tested Aspergilli have a similar genomic potential to degrade plant biomass, with the exception of A. clavatus that has a strongly reduced pectinolytic ability. Despite this similar genomic potential their approaches to degrade plant biomass differ markedly in the overall activities as well as the specific enzymes they employ. While many of the genes have orthologs in (nearly) all tested species, only very few of the corresponding enzymes are produced by all species during growth on wheat bran or sugar beet pulp. In addition, significant differences were observed between the enzyme sets produced on these feedstocks, largely correlating with their polysaccharide composition. CONCLUSIONS: These data demonstrate that Aspergillus species and possibly also other related fungi employ significantly different approaches to degrade plant biomass. This makes sense from an ecological perspective where mixed populations of fungi together degrade plant biomass. The results of this study indicate that combining the approaches from different species could result in improved enzyme mixtures for industrial applications, in particular saccharification of plant biomass for biofuel production. Such an approach may result in a much better improvement of saccharification efficiency than adding specific enzymes to the mixture of a single fungus, which is currently the most common approach used in biotechnology.

Sugar catabolism in Aspergillus and other fungi related to the utilization of plant biomass.

Fungi are found in all natural and artificial biotopes and can use highly diverse carbon sources. They play a major role in the global carbon cycle by decomposing plant biomass and this biomass is the main carbon source for many fungi. Plant biomass is composed of cell wall polysaccharides (cellulose, hemicellulose, pectin) and lignin. To degrade cell wall polysaccharides to different monosaccharides, fungi produce a broad range of enzymes with a large variety in activities. Through a series of enzymatic reactions, sugar-specific and central metabolic pathways convert these monosaccharides into energy or metabolic precursors needed for the biosynthesis of biomolecules. This chapter describes the carbon catabolic pathways that are required to efficiently use plant biomass as a carbon source. It will give an overview of the known metabolic pathways in fungi, their interconnections, and the differences between fungal species.

The transcriptional activators AraR and XlnR from Aspergillus niger regulate expression of pentose catabolic and pentose phosphate pathway genes.

The pentose catabolic pathway (PCP) and the pentose phosphate pathway (PPP) are required for the conversion of pentose sugars in fungi and are linked via d-xylulose-5-phosphate. Previously, it was shown that the PCP is regulated by the transcriptional activators XlnR and AraR in Aspergillus niger. Here we assessed whether XlnR and AraR also regulate the PPP. Expression of two genes, rpiA and talB, was reduced in the ΔaraR/ΔxlnR strain and increased in the xylulokinase negative strain (xkiA1) on d-xylose and/or l-arabinose. Bioinformatic analysis of the 1 kb promoter regions of rpiA and talB showed the presence of putative XlnR binding sites. Combining all results in this study, it strongly suggests that these two PPP genes are under regulation of XlnR in A. niger.

Secondary metabolism and biotrophic lifestyle in the tomato pathogen Cladosporium fulvum.

Cladosporium fulvum is a biotrophic fungal pathogen that causes leaf mould of tomato. Analysis of its genome suggested a high potential for production of secondary metabolites (SM), which might be harmful to plants and animals. Here, we have analysed in detail the predicted SM gene clusters of C. fulvum employing phylogenetic and comparative genomic approaches. Expression of the SM core genes was measured by RT-qrtPCR and produced SMs were determined by LC-MS and NMR analyses. The genome of C. fulvum contains six gene clusters that are conserved in other fungal species, which have undergone rearrangements and gene losses associated with the presence of transposable elements. Although being a biotroph, C. fulvum has the potential to produce elsinochrome and cercosporin toxins. However, the corresponding core genes are not expressed during infection of tomato. Only two core genes, PKS6 and NPS9, show high expression in planta, but both are significantly down regulated during colonization of the mesophyll tissue. In vitro SM profiling detected only one major compound that was identified as cladofulvin. PKS6 is likely involved in the production of this pigment because it is the only core gene significantly expressed under these conditions. Cladofulvin does not cause necrosis on Solanaceae plants and does not show any antimicrobial activity. In contrast to other biotrophic fungi that have a reduced SM production capacity, our studies on C. fulvum suggest that down-regulation of SM biosynthetic pathways might represent another mechanism associated with a biotrophic lifestyle.

Carbohydrate utilization and metabolism is highly differentiated in Agaricus bisporus.

BACKGROUND: Agaricus bisporus is commercially grown on compost, in which the available carbon sources consist mainly of plant-derived polysaccharides that are built out of various different constituent monosaccharides. The major constituent monosaccharides of these polysaccharides are glucose, xylose, and arabinose, while smaller amounts of galactose, glucuronic acid, rhamnose and mannose are also present. RESULTS: In this study, genes encoding putative enzymes from carbon metabolism were identified and their expression was studied in different growth stages of A. bisporus. We correlated the expression of genes encoding plant and fungal polysaccharide modifying enzymes identified in the A. bisporus genome to the soluble carbohydrates and the composition of mycelium grown compost, casing layer and fruiting bodies. CONCLUSIONS: The compost grown vegetative mycelium of A. bisporus consumes a wide variety of monosaccharides. However, in fruiting bodies only hexose catabolism occurs, and no accumulation of other sugars was observed. This suggests that only hexoses or their conversion products are transported from the vegetative mycelium to the fruiting body, while the other sugars likely provide energy for growth and maintenance of the vegetative mycelium. Clear correlations were found between expression of the genes and composition of carbohydrates. Genes encoding plant cell wall polysaccharide degrading enzymes were mainly expressed in compost-grown mycelium, and largely absent in fruiting bodies. In contrast, genes encoding fungal cell wall polysaccharide modifying enzymes were expressed in both fruiting bodies and vegetative mycelium, but different gene sets were expressed in these samples.

Xlr1 is involved in the transcriptional control of the pentose catabolic pathway, but not hemi-cellulolytic enzymes in Magnaporthe oryzae.

Magnaporthe oryzae is a fungal plant pathogen of many grasses including rice. Since arabinoxylan is one of the major components of the plant cell wall of grasses, M. oryzae is likely to degrade this polysaccharide for supporting its growth in infected leaves. D-Xylose is released from arabinoxylan by fungal depolymerising enzymes and catabolized through the pentose pathway. The expression of genes involved in these pathways is under control of the transcriptional activator XlnR/Xlr1, conserved among filamentous ascomycetes. In this study, we identified M. oryzae genes involved in the pentose catabolic pathway (PCP) and their function during infection, including the XlnR homolog, XLR1, through the phenotypic analysis of targeted null mutants. Growth of the Δxlr1 strain was reduced on D-xylose and xylan, but unaffected on L-arabinose and arabinan. A strong reduction of PCP gene expression was observed in the Δxlr1 strain on D-xylose and L-arabinose. However, there was no significant difference in xylanolytic and cellulolytic enzyme activities between the Δxlr1 mutant and the reference strain. These data demonstrate that XLR1 encodes the transcriptional activator of the PCP in M. oryzae, but does not appear to play a role in the regulation of the (hemi-) cellulolytic system in this fungus. This indicates only partial similarity in function between Xlr1 and A. niger XlnR. The deletion mutant of D-xylulose kinase encoding gene (XKI1) is clearly unable to grow on either D-xylose or L-arabinose and showed reduced growth on xylitol, L-arabitol and xylan. Δxki1 displayed an interesting molecular phenotype as it over-expressed other PCP genes as well as genes encoding (hemi-) cellulolytic enzymes. However, neither Δxlr1 nor Δxki1 showed significant differences in their pathogeny on rice and barley compared to the wild type, suggesting that D-xylose catabolism is not required for fungal growth in infected leaves.

The influence of Aspergillus niger transcription factors AraR and XlnR in the gene expression during growth in D-xylose, L-arabinose and steam-exploded sugarcane bagasse.

The interest in the conversion of plant biomass to renewable fuels such as bioethanol has led to an increased investigation into the processes regulating biomass saccharification. The filamentous fungus Aspergillus niger is an important microorganism capable of producing a wide variety of plant biomass degrading enzymes. In A. niger the transcriptional activator XlnR and its close homolog, AraR, controls the main (hemi-)cellulolytic system responsible for plant polysaccharide degradation. Sugarcane is used worldwide as a feedstock for sugar and ethanol production, while the lignocellulosic residual bagasse can be used in different industrial applications, including ethanol production. The use of pentose sugars from hemicelluloses represents an opportunity to further increase production efficiencies. In the present study, we describe a global gene expression analysis of A. niger XlnR- and AraR-deficient mutant strains, grown on a D-xylose/L-arabinose monosaccharide mixture and steam-exploded sugarcane bagasse. Different gene sets of CAZy enzymes and sugar transporters were shown to be individually or dually regulated by XlnR and AraR, with XlnR appearing to be the major regulator on complex polysaccharides. Our study contributes to understanding of the complex regulatory mechanisms responsible for plant polysaccharide-degrading gene expression, and opens new possibilities for the engineering of fungi able to produce more efficient enzymatic cocktails to be used in biofuel production.

Regulation of pentose utilisation by AraR, but not XlnR, differs in Aspergillus nidulans and Aspergillus niger.

Filamentous fungi are important producers of plant polysaccharide degrading enzymes that are used in many industrial applications. These enzymes are produced by the fungus to liberate monomeric sugars that are used as carbon source. Two of the main components of plant polysaccharides are L-arabinose and D-xylose, which are metabolized through the pentose catabolic pathway (PCP) in these fungi. In Aspergillus niger, the regulation of pentose release from polysaccharides and the PCP involves the transcriptional activators AraR and XlnR, which are also present in other Aspergilli such as Aspergillus nidulans. The comparative analysis revealed that the regulation of the PCP by AraR differs in A. nidulans and A. niger, whereas the regulation of the PCP by XlnR was similar in both species. This was demonstrated by the growth differences on L-arabinose between disruptant strains for araR and xlnR in A. nidulans and A. niger. In addition, the expression profiles of genes encoding L-arabinose reductase (larA), L-arabitol dehydrogenase (ladA) and xylitol dehydrogenase (xdhA) differed in these strains. This data suggests evolutionary changes in these two species that affect pentose utilisation. This study also implies that manipulating regulatory systems to improve the production of polysaccharide degrading enzymes, may give different results in different industrial fungi.

The α-glucuronidase Agu1 from Schizophyllum commune is a member of a novel glycoside hydrolase family (GH115).

Schizophyllum commune produces an α-glucuronidase that is active on polymeric xylan, while the ascomycete α-glucuronidases are only active on xylan oligomers. In this study, we have identified the gene (agu1) encoding this enzyme and confirmed the functionality by overexpression of the gene in S. commune and degradation of aldopentauronic acids, (MeGlcA)(3)-Xyl(4), in the cultivation medium of the transformants. Expression analysis demonstrated that agu1 is not co-regulated with the predominant xylanase-encoding gene (xynA) of S. commune. The detailed sequence analysis of Agu1 demonstrated that this gene belongs to a novel glycoside hydrolase family (GH115) that also contains candidate genes from ascomycete fungi and bacteria. Phylogenetic analysis showed that the fungal GH115 α-glucuronidases are distinctly separate from the prokaryotic clade and distributed over three branches. The identification of putative genes encoding this enzyme in industrial fungi, such as Aspergillus oryzae and Hypocrea jecorina, will provide a starting point for further analysis of the importance of this enzyme for the hydrolysis of plant biomass.