Agrobacterium-mediated insertional mutagenesis (AIM) of the entomopathogenic fungus Beauveria bassiana

Curr Genet. 2004 Feb;45(2):111-9. doi: 10.1007/s00294-003-0468-2. Epub 2003 Nov 22.

Abstract

Agrobacterium tumefaciens was used to stably transform the entomopathogenic deuteromycete Beauveria bassiana to hygromycin B resistance by integration of the hph gene of Escherichia coli into the fungal genome. The transformation protocol was optimized to generate a library of insertion mutants of Beauveria. Transformation frequencies around 10(-4) and suppression of background growth were achieved. Over 90% of the AIM mutants investigated contained single-copy T-DNA integrations at different chromosomal locations. Integrated T-DNAs were re-isolated from ten transformants by a marker rescue approach. When the sequences flanking these T-DNAs were compared with the corresponding locations of the wild-type genome, truncations of T-DNA borders were found to be common, while none of the sites of integration had suffered deletion or rearrangement. Thus, AIM can be considered a promising tool for insertional mutagenesis studies of entomopathogenic filamentous fungi.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Agrobacterium tumefaciens / genetics*
  • Animals
  • Base Sequence
  • DNA Primers / genetics
  • DNA, Bacterial / genetics
  • DNA, Fungal / genetics
  • Drug Resistance, Fungal / genetics
  • Genetic Vectors
  • Hygromycin B / pharmacology
  • Hypocreales / drug effects
  • Hypocreales / genetics*
  • Hypocreales / pathogenicity*
  • Insecta / microbiology
  • Molecular Sequence Data
  • Mutagenesis, Insertional / methods*

Substances

  • DNA Primers
  • DNA, Bacterial
  • DNA, Fungal
  • T-DNA
  • Hygromycin B