Forced Recycling of an AMA1-Based Genome-Editing Plasmid Allows for Efficient Multiple Gene Deletion/Integration in the Industrial Filamentous Fungus Aspergillus oryzae

Abstract

Multiple gene modifications of specific fungal strains are required for achieving industrial-scale production of enzymes and secondary metabolites. In the present study, we developed an efficient multiple genetic engineering technique for the filamentous fungus Aspergillus oryzae . The approach is based on a clustered regulatory interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR)/Cas9 system and recycling of an AMA1-based autonomous replicating plasmid. Because the plasmid harbors a drug resistance marker ( ptrA ), the approach does not require the construction of auxotrophic industrial strains prior to genome editing and allows for forced recycling of the gene-editing plasmid. The established plasmid-recycling technique involves an Aoace2 -conditional expression cassette, whose induction severely impairs fungal growth. We used the developed genetic engineering techniques for highly efficient marker-free multiple gene deletion/integration in A. oryzae . The genome-editing approaches established in the present study, which enable unlimited repeatable genetic engineering, will facilitate multiple gene modification of industrially important fungal strains.