Efficient transformation and expression of gfp gene in the edible mushroom Pleurotus nebrodensis

An efficient transformation method mediated by PEG-protoplasts was developed for the newly commercial edible mushroom Pleurotus nebrodensis. Two plasmids were used to co-transform protoplasts of P. nebrodensis. One plasmid is pAN7-1 containing a positive selectable marker gene hph conferring hygromycin B resistance. Another plasmid is pBlue-GFP containing a reporter gene gfp conferring green fluorescent protein. PCR and Southern blot analysis showed that hph gene or/and gfp gene were integrated into the genome of P. nebrodensis transformants. The transformation efficiency of the positive selectable marker gene hph was 3 transformants per microgram of plasmid pAN7-1 DNA, which was about 30 times higher than that previously reported in thoroughly studied Pleurotus species such as Pleurotus ostreatus. The transformation efficiency of the reporter gene gfp was 9 transformants per microgram of plasmid pBlu-GFP DNA. The co-transformation efficiency was 23.68%. This is the first report that a "reporter" gene, green fluorescent protein gene can be successfully stably expressed in this Pleurotus species. (c) 2008 National Natural Science Foundation of China and Chinese Academy of Sciences. Published by Elsevier Limited and Science in China Press. All rights reserved.