Enhancement of Xylanase Production by Protoplast Fusion of Trichoderma spp.

Filamentous fungi Trichoderma spp. are efficient hyper-producers of industrially important enzymes. Xylanases are essential hemicellulases having vast ranges of applications in the various industrial sectors. In this study, the protoplast fusion of two T. virens and T. harzianum strains resulted in 2.5 Uml-1 xylanase activity in fusant X3 showing 4.7-fold improvement in xylanase activity compared to that of parents with 0.54 Uml-1. Moreover, to evaluate the influence of protoplast fusion on the xylanase activity, the expression patterns of the xylanase gene xyn3 was analyzed in the parental strains and the using qPCR. The results demonstrated that the relative expression of the xyn3 increased in X3 by 4.9 fold compared to that of the parents. Finally, based on the results, it could be concluded that the protoplast fusion technology is a promising approach to generate new superior fungi with high production ability of the industrially important enzymes.