Down-regulation of pyruvate decarboxylase gene of white-rot fungus Phlebia sp. MG-60 modify the metabolism of sugars and productivity of extracellular peroxidase activity.

Ethanologenic white-rot fungus Phlebia sp. MG-60-P2 produces ethanol directly from several lignocelluloses. Efficient gene silencing methods are needed for metabolic engineering of this fungus for biorefinery use. In this study, we evaluated the effectiveness of RNAi-mediated silencing of the pyruvate decarboxylase gene of Phlebia sp. MG-60-P2 (MGpdc1). The RNAi lines generated showed a variety of suppression levels of ethanol production and MGpdc1 expression, and two selected strains led to different metabolic fluxes, resulting in rapid accumulation of xylitol from xylose. Knockdown lines KD2 and KD10 showed different strength of silencing. The moderate-inhibition line (KD10) showed faster xylitol accumulation from xylose than the severe-inhibition line (KD2). KD2, KD10 and knockout line KO77 showed higher extracellular peroxidase activity than the wild-type. Gene silencing using RNAi for MGpdc1 in the ethanologenic white-rot fungus Phlebia sp. MG-60-P2 is an effective first step in metabolic engineering to produce other chemicals besides ethanol. This high efficiency of transformation and silencing effect will make it possible to cotransform with multiple expression vectors which enhance the minor metabolic pathway or introduce exogenous metabolic reaction in Phlebia sp. MG-60-P2.