Transcriptional Profiling of the Trichoderma reesei Recombinant Strain HJ48 by RNA-Seq

The ethanol production of Trichoderma reesei was improved by genome shuffling in our previous work. Using RNA-Seq, the transcriptomes of T. reesei wild-type CICC40360 and recombinant strain HJ48 were compared under fermentation conditions. Based on this analysis, we defined a set of T. reesei genes involved in ethanol production. Further expression analysis identified a series of glycolysis enzymes, which are upregulated in the recombinant strain HJ48 under fermentation conditions. The differentially expressed genes were further validated by qPCR. The present study will be helpful for future studies on ethanol fermentation as well as the roles of the involved genes. This research reveals several major differences in metabolic pathways between recombinant strain HJ48 and wild-type CICC40360, which relates to the higher ethanol production on the former, and their further research could promote the development of techniques for increasing ethanol production.