Growth, Enzymatic, and Transcriptomic Analysis of Deletion Reveals a Major Regulator of Plant Biomass-Degrading Enzymes in .

The regulation of plant biomass degradation by fungi is critical to the carbon cycle, and applications in bioproducts and biocontrol. is an important plant biomass degrader, enzyme producer, and biocontrol agent, but few putative major transcriptional regulators have been deleted in this species. The . ortholog of the transcriptional activator XYR1/XlnR/XLR-1 was deleted, and the mutant strains were analyzed through growth profiling, enzymatic activities, and transcriptomics on cellulose. From plate cultures, the Δ mutant had reduced growth on D-xylose, xylan, and cellulose, and from shake-flask cultures with cellulose, the Δ mutant had ~90% lower β-glucosidase activity, and no detectable β-xylosidase or cellulase activity. The comparison of the transcriptomes from 18 h shake-flask cultures on D-fructose, without a carbon source, and cellulose, showed major effects of XYR1 deletion whereby the Δ mutant on cellulose was transcriptionally most similar to the cultures without a carbon source. The cellulose induced 43 plant biomass-degrading CAZymes including xylanases as well as cellulases, and most of these had massively lower expression in the Δ mutant. The expression of a subset of carbon catabolic enzymes, other transcription factors, and sugar transporters was also lower in the Δ mutant on cellulose. In summary, . XYR1 is the master regulator of cellulases and xylanases, as well as regulating carbon catabolic enzymes.