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Release of Pleurotus ostreatus Versatile-Peroxidase from Mn2+ Repression Enhances Anthropogenic and Natural Substrate Degradation

Summary

This research focused on improving the ability of oyster mushrooms to break down tough plant materials by genetically modifying them to produce more of an important enzyme. The modified mushrooms showed enhanced capabilities to degrade both natural plant materials and artificial dyes, with potential real-world applications. Impacts on everyday life: – Could lead to more efficient production of biofuels from plant waste – May improve the nutritional value of animal feed made from agricultural byproducts – Offers new possibilities for cleaning up environmental pollutants using mushrooms – Could reduce waste by enabling better recycling of plant-based materials – May lead to more sustainable industrial processes using fungal enzymes

Background

Pleurotus ostreatus (oyster mushroom) is a commercially important edible ligninolytic white-rot fungus that serves as a model for studying lignin biodegradation mechanisms. The fungus contains a manganese peroxidase (MnP) gene family comprised of nine members, including versatile-peroxidases (VPs) that can oxidize both Mn2+ and other substrates. While Mn2+ supplements enhance degradation of compounds, they also repress expression of mnp4, which encodes the predominant VP.

Objective

To investigate the effect of releasing mnp4 from Mn2+ repression by genetically engineering a P. ostreatus strain to constitutively express mnp4 despite the presence of Mn2+ in the culture medium, and characterize its ligninolytic functionality.

Results

The engineered OEmnp4 strain showed constitutive high-level expression of mnp4 despite Mn2+ presence, with expression levels 27-fold higher than wild-type throughout incubation. This resulted in earlier and higher peroxidase activities, enhanced decolorization of azo dyes, 25-33% improved lignocellulose digestibility, and increased lignin mineralization compared to wild-type strain.

Conclusion

Releasing mnp4 from Mn2+ repression through genetic modification resulted in enhanced degradation capabilities of both anthropogenic compounds and natural lignin substrates. This demonstrates VP4’s key role in P. ostreatus ligninolytic functionality and provides potential applications for improving lignocellulose processing for animal feed, biofuel production and bioremediation.
  • Published in:PLoS One,
  • Study Type:Experimental Research,
  • Source: 10.1371/journal.pone.0052446
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