Development of an Unmarked Gene Deletion System for the Filamentous Fungi Aspergillus niger and Talaromyces versatilis

摘要

In this article, we present a method to delete genes in filamentous fungi that allows recycling of the selection marker and is efficient in a nonhomologous end-joining (NHEJ)-proficient strain. We exemplify the approach by deletion of the gene encoding the transcriptional regulator XlnR in the fungus Aspergillus niger . To show the efficiency and advantages of the method, we deleted 8 other genes and constructed a double mutant in this species. Moreover, we showed that the same principle also functions in a different genus of filamentous fungus ( Talaromyces versatilis , basionym Penicillium funiculosum ). This technique will increase the versatility of the toolboxes for genome manipulation of model and industrially relevant fungi.