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Increasing oxidative stress tolerance and subculturing stability of Cordyceps militaris by overexpression of a glutathione peroxidase gene

  • Applied Genetics and Molecular Biotechnology
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Abstract

Like other filamentous fungi, the medicinal ascomycete Cordyceps militaris frequently degenerates during continuous maintenance in culture by showing loss of the ability to reproduce sexually or asexually. Degeneration of fungal cultures has been related with cellular accumulation of reactive oxygen species (ROS). In this study, an antioxidant glutathione peroxidase (Gpx) gene from Aspergillus nidulans was engineered into two C. militaris strains, i.e., the Cm01 strain which can fruit normally and the Cm04 strain which has lost the ability to form fruiting bodies on different media through subculturing. The results showed that the mitotically stable mutants had higher Gpx activities and stronger capacity to scavenge cellular ROS than their parental strains. Most significantly, the fruiting ability of Cm04 strain was restored by overexpression of the antioxidant enzyme. However, after being successively transferred for up to ten generations, two of three Cm04 mutants again lost the ability to fruit on insect pupae while Cm01 transformants remained fertile. This study confirms the relationship between fungal culture degeneration and cellular ROS accumulation. Our results indicate that genetic engineering with an antioxidant gene can be an effective way to reverse fungal degeneration during subculturing.

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Acknowledgments

This study was supported by Natural Science Foundation of China (30970034) and the Science and Technology Commission of Shanghai Municipality (grant no. 08DZ1970200).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Insect Developmental and Evolutionary Biology, Institute of Plant Physiology and Ecology, Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 300 Fenglin Road, Shanghai, 200032, China

    Chenghui Xiong, Yongliang Xia, Peng Zheng & Chengshu Wang

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  1. Chenghui Xiong
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  2. Yongliang Xia
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  3. Peng Zheng
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  4. Chengshu Wang
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Correspondence to Chengshu Wang.

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Xiong, C., Xia, Y., Zheng, P. et al. Increasing oxidative stress tolerance and subculturing stability of Cordyceps militaris by overexpression of a glutathione peroxidase gene. Appl Microbiol Biotechnol 97, 2009–2015 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00253-012-4286-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00253-012-4286-7

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