The Aspergillus fumigatus cellobiohydrolase B (cbhB) promoter is tightly regulated and can be exploited for controlled protein expression and RNAi

Abstract

The utility of the Aspergillus fumigatus cellobiohydrolase cbhB promoter for controlled gene expression has been investigated. cbhB message was present at high levels in the presence of carboxymethylcellulose and undetected in the presence of glucose. A reporter construct using the cbhB promoter showed similar behaviour and gave lower message levels than the Aspergillus nidulans alcA promoter under repressing conditions. An RNAi construct driven by the cbhB promoter was used to down-regulate the alb1 gene; transformants showed low alb1 message levels and a loss-of-function phenotype with carboxymethylcellulose, while both wild-type message levels and phenotype were seen with glucose. The cbhB promoter is therefore tightly controlled and can be exploited for the study of A. fumigatus.