Cold-active pectinolytic activity produced by filamentous fungi associated with Antarctic marine sponges

Abstract

BackgroundPectinase enzymes catalyze the breakdown of pectin, a key component of the plant cell wall. At industrial level, pectinases are used in diverse applications, especially in food-processing industry. Currently, most of the industrial pectinases have optimal activity at mesophilic temperatures. On the contrary, very little is known about the pectinolytic activities from organisms from cold climates such as Antarctica. In this work, 27 filamentous fungi isolated from marine sponges collected in King George Island, Antarctica, were screened as new source of cold-active pectinases.ResultsIn semi-quantitative plate assays, 8 out 27 of these isolates showed pectinolytic activities at 15 °C and one of them, Geomyces sp. strain F09-T3-2, showed the highest production of pectinases in liquid medium containing pectin as sole carbon source. More interesting, Geomyces sp. F09-T3-2 showed optimal pectinolytic activity at 30 °C, 10 °C under the temperature of currently available commercial mesophilic pectinases.ConclusionFilamentous fungi associated with Antarctic marine sponges are a promising source of pectinolytic activity. In particular, pectinases from Geomyces sp. F09-T3-2 may be potentially suitable for biotechnological applications needing cold-active pectinases. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report describing the production of pectinolytic activity from filamentous fungi from any environment in Antarctica.

Genetic Transformation of the Filamentous Fungus Pseudogymnoascus verrucosus of Antarctic Origin

“…Taken together, these results suggest that both protoplasts and germinated conidia of P. verrucosus FAE27 are very sensitive to high temperatures. P. verrucosus FAE27 has a temperature range of growth between 4 and 25°C with optimal growth at 15°C (Henríquez et al, 2014; Poveda et al, 2018), which agrees with this observation. However, it should be highlighted that some mesophilic fungi also requires molten agar at low temperature to successfully obtain transformants (Cho et al, 2013; Roth and Chilvers, 2019), so this is not a specific requirement of cold-adapted fungi.…”

“…As a result, we have described and purified novel secondary metabolites with interesting properties from these strains (Henríquez et al, 2014; Figueroa et al, 2015). In addition, we detected that these strains produce cold-adapted enzymes (Poveda et al, 2018). Unfortunately, at genetic level, the lack of a suitable transformation system hinders to go further in our research.…”

“…Several studies have shown that extracts of these fungi produce bioactive metabolites with potential application, including antibacterial, antifungal, tripanocidal, herbicidal, and antitumoral activities (Furbino et al, 2014; Henríquez et al, 2014; Gonçalves et al, 2015; Gomes et al, 2018; Purić et al, 2018; Vieira et al, 2018). On the other hand, Pseudogymnoascus strains of Antarctic origin also have shown ability to produce cold-adapted enzymes with potential application in several industrial processes (Loperena et al, 2012; Poveda et al, 2018).…”

Diversity, Ecological Role and Biotechnological Potential of Antarctic Marine Fungi

“…Finally, different fungal genera such as Penicillium , Cladosporium , Geomyces, and Pseudogymnoascus isolated from Antarctic macroalgae and sponges showed carrageenolytic and agarolytic activities which can be useful in processes involving the extraction of the algal biomass for the production of bioethanol [ 69 , 210 ]. Among the tested strains, Geomyces sp.…”

“…Among the tested strains, Geomyces sp. strain F09-T3-2 displayed also high activity pectinase: 121 U/mg after 5 days at 30 °C [ 210 ].…”