Molecular mechanism of sexual reproduction in Trichoderma reesei and its application in strain engineering

Abstract:

Converting lignocellulose into fermentable sugars for the production of biofuels and bio-based chemicals is one of the effective ways to achieve carbon neutrality. Lignocellulose-degrading enzymes play an important role in this process. Trichoderma reesei is the most widely used strain for the production of cellulases and hemicellulases. For a long time, T. reesei has been considered as the asexual form of Hypocrea jecorina, which can only reproduce asexually. The strain improvement is mainly based on traditional mutagenesis and gene manipulation. The sexual cycle of T. reesei has been discovered over the last few years, which provides the possibility for the genetic crossbreeding of T. reesei. Combined with previous work in genetic breeding of T. reesei from our laboratory, this article comprehensively describes the sexual reproduction process, characteristics, and regulation mechanism of T. reesei and prospects the genetic improvement strategy, providing a reference for the further development and application of T. reesei as a cellulase- and recombinant protein-expressing host.