d-Xylose Metabolism in Hypocrea jecorina: Loss of the Xylitol Dehydrogenase Step Can Be Partially Compensated for by lad1-Encoded l-Arabinitol-4-Dehydrogenase

摘要

With the goal of the genetic characterization of the d-xylose pathway in Hypocrea jecorina (anamorph: Trichoderma reesei), we cloned the xdh1 gene, encoding NAD-xylitol dehydrogenase, which catalyzes the second step of fungal d-xylose catabolism. This gene encodes a 363-amino-acid protein which has a mass of 38 kDa, belongs to the zinc-containing alcohol dehydrogenase family, exhibits high sequence identity to the published sequences of xylitol dehydrogenases from yeast origins, but contains a second, additional binding site for Zn2+. The enzyme catalyzed the NAD-dependent oxidation of xylitol and d-sorbitol and the NADH-dependent reduction of d-xylulose and d-fructose. No activity was observed with NADP, l-arabinose, or l-arabinitol. A single 1.4-kb transcript was formed during growth on xylan, d-xylose, l-arabinose, l-arabinitol and, at a lower abundance, xylitol, d-galactose, galactitol, and lactose but not on d-glucose and glycerol. xdh1 deletion mutants exhibited 50% reduced growth rates on d-xylose, whereas growth rates on xylitol remained unaltered. These mutants contained 30% of the xylitol dehydrogenase activity of the parent strain, indicating the presence of a second xylitol dehydrogenase. This activity was shown to be due to lad1-encoded l-arabinitol-4-dehydrogenase, because H. jecorina xdh1 lad1 double-deletion strains failed to grow on d-xylose or xylitol. In contrast, lad1 deletion strains of H. jecorina grew normally on these carbon sources. These results show that H. jecorina contains a single xylitol dehydrogenase which is encoded by xdh1 and is involved in the metabolism of d-xylose and that lad1-encoded l-arabinitol-4-dehydrogenase can compensate for it partially in mutants with a loss of xdh1 function.