Overexpression of laccases in Coprinopsis cinerea

Comunicación presentada al VI Meeting on Genetics and Cellular Biology of Basidiomycetes (GCBB-VI), organizado por y celebrado en la Universidad Pública de Navarra el 3-6 de junio de 2005.Laccases are versatile redox-enzymes that oxidize various phenolic compounds and aromatic amines. Because of the broad substrate specificity, these enzymes are of interest for many different biotechnological applications. White-rot fungi are the major source of laccases. Although basidiomycete species give rise to relatively high enzyme yields, these might not be optimal for applications. Basidiomycetous laccases have been reported to show hyper- or hypo-glycosylation when expressed in ascomycetes. In consequence, enzyme characteristics were found to be altered. Therefore, we use the basidiomycete Coprinopsis cinerea as an organism for laccase overproduction. We present a vector system for easy and rapid cloning of promoters and/or genes of interest and show that such constructs can be functional in laccase production.The author's laboratory is funded by the DBU (Deutsche Bundesstiftung Umwelt). The authors are members of the NHN (Niedersächsisches Kompetenznetz für Nachhaltige Holznutzung). Within the NHN, this work is supported by the European Regional Development Fund (EFRE project 2001.085) and the BMVEL (FKZ 22010603, 2005)