BackgroundThe filamentous fungus Penicillium oxalicum is a potential alternative to Trichoderma reesei for industrial production of a complete cellulolytic enzyme system for a bio-refinery. Comparative omics approaches can support rational genetic engineering and/or breeding of filamentous fungi with improved cellulase production capacity. In this study, comparative genomic, transcriptomic and secretomic profiling of P. oxalicum HP7-1 and its cellulase and xylanase hyper-producing mutant EU2106 were employed to screen for novel regulators of cellulase and xylanase gene expression.ResultsThe 30.62 Mb P. oxalicum HP7-1 genome was sequenced, and 9834 protein-coding genes were annotated. Re-sequencing of the mutant EU2106 genome identified 274 single nucleotide variations and 12 insertion/deletions. Comparative genomic, transcriptomic and secretomic profiling of HP7-1 and EU2106 revealed four candidate regulators of cellulase and xylanase gene expression. Deletion of these candidate genes and measurement of the enzymatic activity of the resultant mutants confirmed the identity of three regulatory genes. POX02484 and POX08522, encoding a putative Zn(II)2Cys6 DNA-binding domain and forkhead protein, respectively, were found to be novel, while PoxClrB is an ortholog of ClrB, a key transcriptional regulator of cellulolytic enzyme gene expression in filamentous fungi. ΔPOX02484 and ΔPOX08522 mutants exhibited significantly reduced β-glucosidase activity, increased carboxymethylcellulose cellulase and xylanase activities, and altered transcription level of cellulase and xylanase genes compared with the parent strain ΔPoxKu70, with Avicel as the sole carbon source.ConclusionsTwo novel genes, POX02484 and POX08522, were found and characterized to regulate the expression of cellulase and xylanase genes in P. oxalicum. These findings are important for engineering filamentous fungi to improve cellulase and xylanase production.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s13068-016-0616-9) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

BackgroundThe transition to a more environmentally friendly economy has prompted studies of modern biorefineries, including the utilization of low-value lignocellulose. The major challenge facing the widespread application of biorefineries is the high cost of enzymes that can efficiently hydrolyze recalcitrant cellulose to sugars. Penicillium oxalicum produces large amounts of plant-cell-wall-degrading enzymes, but their production is tightly controlled by complex regulatory networks, resulting in low yields of the native enzymes. Regulatory genes have been the targets of genetic engineering to improve enzyme production in microorganisms. In this study, we used transcriptomic profiling and genetic analyses to screen for and identify novel key regulators of cellulase and xylanase gene expression in P. oxalicum.ResultsA comparative analysis of the transcriptomes of P. oxalicum HP7-1 on different carbon sources, including glucose, wheat bran, and wheat bran plus Avicel, identified 40 candidate genes regulating the expression of cellulolytic enzyme genes. Deletion mutants of 31 candidate genes were constructed in P. oxalicum ∆PoxKu70 and 11 resultant mutants showed significant changes in their filter-paper cellulase production compared with the parental strain ∆PoxKu70. Among these 11 mutants, ΔPoxCxrA, ΔPoxCxrB, and ΔPoxNsdD showed the most significant reduction in the enzyme production (96.8, 75.9, and 58.5%, respectively). Ten of these 11 genes are here reported to be involved in cellulase production for the first time. Further tests revealed that ΔPoxCxrA, ΔPoxCxrB, and ΔPoxNsdD displayed significantly reduced xylanase production, whereas ΔPoxCxrA produced negligible xylanase. Interestingly, ΔPoxCxrB and ΔPoxNsdD showed significantly increased β-glucosidase production. Real-time quantitative reverse transcription–PCR and an electrophoretic mobility shift assay (EMSA) showed that PoxCxrA, PoxCxrB, and PoxNsdD regulate the expression of one another, but the mode of regulation changes dynamically during the growth of fungal cells in the presence of cellulose. EMSA showed that PoxCxrA, PoxCxrB, and PoxNsdD directly bind the putative promoters of major cellulase and xylanase genes.ConclusionsWe have detected and identified three key new regulatory genes, PoxCxrA, PoxCxrB, and PoxNsdD, that directly and indirectly regulate the expression of cellulase and xylanase genes in P. oxalicum. This study provides novel insights into the regulatory mechanisms of fungal cellulase and xylanase gene expression.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (10.1186/s13068-017-0966-y) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Chiral tertiary alcohols are important building blocks for the synthesis of pharmaceutical agents and biologically active natural products. The addition of carbon nucleophiles to ketones is the most common approach to tertiary alcohol synthesis, but traditionally relies on stoichiometric organometallic reagents that are difficult to prepare, sensitive, and uneconomical. We describe a mild and efficient method for the copper-catalyzed allylation of ketones, using widely available 1,3-dienes as allylmetal surrogates. Homoallylic alcohols bearing a wide range of functional groups are obtained in high yield and with good regio-, diastereo-, and enantioselectivity. Mechanistic investigations using density functional theory (DFT) implicate the in situ formation of a rapidly equilibrating mixture of isomeric copper(I) allyl complexes, from which Curtin-Hammett kinetics determine the major isomer of product. A stereochemical model is provided to explain the high diastereo-and enantioselectivity of this process. Finally, this method was applied toward the preparation of an important drug, (R)-Procyclidine, and a key intermediate in the synthesis of several pharmaceuticals.

The enantioselective formation of quaternary carbon stereocenters in complex natural product synthesis in the latest six years is reviewed, with particular emphasis on the analysis of the stereochemical model of each enantioselective transformation.

Bulky P,P=O ligands were designed to inhibit isomerization and reduction side reactions during the cross coupling between sterically hindered aryl halides and alkylboronic acids. Suzuki-Miyaura cross-couplings between di-ortho-substituted aryl bromides and acyclic secondary alkylboronic acids have been achieved with high yields. The method has also enabled the preparation of ortho-alkoxy di-ortho-substituted arenes bearing isopropyl groups in excellent yields. The utility of the synthetic method has been demonstrated in a late-stage modification of estrone and in the application to a new synthetic route toward gossypol.

Recently, CuH‐catalyzed reductive coupling processes involving carbonyl compounds and imines have become attractive alternatives to traditional methods for stereoselective addition because of their ability to use readily accessible and stable olefins as surrogates for organometallic nucleophiles. However, the inability to use aldehydes, which usually reduce too rapidly in the presence of copper hydride complexes to be viable substrates, has been a major limitation. Shown here is that by exploiting relative concentration effects through kinetic control, this intrinsic reactivity can be inverted and the reductive coupling of 1,3‐dienes with aldehydes achieved. Using this method, both aromatic and aliphatic aldehydes can be transformed into synthetically valuable homoallylic alcohols with high levels of diastereo‐ and enantioselectivities, and in the presence of many useful functional groups. Furthermore, using a combination of theoretical (DFT) and experimental methods, important mechanistic features of this reaction related to stereo‐ and chemoselectivities were uncovered.

An efficient method for sterically demanding Suzuki-Miyaura coupling reactions has been developed with two catalysts, Pd/BI-DIME (see scheme) and Pd/phenanthrene-based ligand. The Pd/BI-DIME catalyst facilitates the syntheses of extremely hindered biaryls bearing ortho-isopropyl substituents. The other catalyst is efficient for the synthesis of functionalized tetra-ortho-substituted biaryls at low catalyst loadings.

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