Phlebia sp. MG-60 is the salt-tolerant, white-rot fungus which was isolated from a mangrove forest. This fungus expresses three kinds of manganese peroxidase (MGMnP) isozymes, MGMnP1, MGMnP2 and MGMnP3 in low nitrogen medium (LNM) or LNM containing NaCl. To date, there have been no reports on the biochemical salt-tolerance of these MnP isozymes due to the difficulty of purification. In present study, we established forced expression transformants of these three types of MnP isozymes. In addition, the fact that this fungus hardly produces native MnP in a high-nitrogen medium (HNM) was used to perform isozyme-selective expression and simple purification in HNM. The resulting MGMnPs showed high tolerance for NaCl compared with the MnP of Phanerochaete chrysosporium. It was worth noting that high concentration of NaCl (over 200 mM to 1200 mM) can enhance the activity of MGMnP1. Additionally, MGMnP1 showed relatively high thermo tolerance compared with other isozymes. MGMnPs may have evolved to adapt to chloride-rich environments, mangrove forest.
Keywords: Manganese peroxidase; Phlebia sp. MG-60; homologous expression; salt tolerance; white-rot fungi.