CLONING OF AN ASPERGILLUS-NIGER INVERTASE GENE BY EXPRESSION IN TRICHODERMA-REESEI

The filamentous fungus Aspergillus niger produces two glycosylated forms of the sucrose-hydrolysing enzyme, invertase. In contrast, some Trichoderma species lack invertase and are unable to utilise sucrose as a sole carbon source. Using an A. niger genomic library constructed in a cosmid vector containing the ura5 gene of Podospora anserina as a selectable marker, and the T. reesei ura5- strain as a sucrose-minus recipient strain, an A. niger invertase gene (suc1) has been cloned by a sib selection procedure. PAGE and enzyme analysis confirmed that transformants had acquired invertase activity. The cloned gene contained DNA sequences which were complementary to the amino-acid sequences of tryptic peptides found in invertase purified from A. niger. The suc1 invertase gene can be used as a dominant selectable marker for the transformation of Trichoderma strains.