Transcriptional and genomic profiling of industrial Trichoderma reesei strains

Trichoderma reesei has a long history in industrial enzyme production because of its high protein secretion capability and easy processability. Despite its many positive features, further strain engineering is still being pursued to remove any remaining protein production and secretion bottlenecks. Systems biology methods were applied to study protein production in selected proprietary T. reesei strains. Transcriptional analysis using microarrays was performed to identify differentially expressed genes in various cultivation conditions and high-density Comparative Genomic Hybridization (CGH) was used to characterize genomic alterations in the strains. Combined data from CGH and transcriptional analyses was utilized to identify target genes for further improvement of protein production/secretion. Deletions and/or overexpressions of 16 genes involved in protein transport, post-translational modification, basic energy metabolism or regulatory functions were studied in detail.