Development of a fungal transformation system based on selection of sequences with promoter activity

A novel strategy was used to develop a transformation system for the plant pathogenic fungus Cochliobolus heterostrophus. Sequences capable of driving the expression of a gene conferring resistance to the antibiotic hygromycin B in C. heterostrophus were selected from a library of genomic DNA fragments and used, with the selectable marker, as the basis for transformation. The library of random 0.5- to 2.0-kilobase-pair fragments of C. heterostrophus genomic DNA was inserted at the 5' end of a truncated, promoterless Escherichia coli hygromycin B phosphotransferase gene (hygB) whose product confers resistance to hygromycin B. C. heterostrophus protoplasts were transformed with the library and selected for resistance. Resistant colonies arose at low frequency. Each colony contained a transformation vector stably integrated into chromosomal DNA. When the transforming DNA was recovered from the genome and introduced into C. heterostrophus, resistant colonies appeared at higher frequency. We determined the sequences of two of the C. heterostrophus DNA fragments which had been inserted at the 5' end of hygB in the promoter library and found that both made translational fusions with hygB. One of the two fusions apparently adds 65 and the other at least 86 amino acids to the N-terminus of the hygB product. Plasmids containing hygB-C. heterostrophus promoter fusions can be used unaltered to drive hygB expression in several other filamentous ascomycetes. This approach to achieving transformation may have general utility, especially for organisms with relatively undeveloped genetics.