Overexpression of laccases in Coprinopsis cinerea

Abstract

Laccases are versatile redox-enzymes that oxidize various phenolic compounds and aromatic amines. Because of the broad substrate specificity, these enzymes are of interest for many different biotechnological applications. White-rot fungi are the major source of laccases. Although basidiomycete species give rise to relatively high enzyme yields, these might not be optimal for applications. Basidiomycetous laccases have been reported to show hyper- or hypo-glycosylation when expressed in ascomycetes. In consequence, enzyme characteristics were found to be altered. Therefore, we use the basidiomycete Coprinopsis cinerea as an organism for laccase overproduction. We present a vector system for easy and rapid cloning of promoters and/or genes of interest and show that such constructs can be functional in laccase production.