Use of a shuttle vector for the transformation of the white rot basidiomycete, Phanerochaete chrysosporium

A novel shuttle vector based spheroplast transformation system for the lignin degrading filamentous fungus P. chrysosporium is described. The transformation vector, designated pRR12, consists of the yeast integration plasmid YIp5, a putative autonomous replication sequence (ars) of P. chrysosporium, and a 2.2 kb PvuII fragment carrying kan^r determinant from plasmid pNG35, which confers resistance against both kanamycin and the related antibiotic G418. Two different strains of P. chrysosporium (ME446 and BKM-F) were transformed to G418 resistance using vector pRR12. Approximately 20 transformants per μg of vector DNA were obtained. The transforming vector pRR12 could be recovered from the total DNA of transformants by E. coli transformation, albeit at a low frequency.