Seamless deletion of a large DNA fragment in the taxol-producing fungus Pestalotiopsis microspora

To reduce the unnecessary gene clusters in the taxol-producing fungus Pestalotiopsis microspora, we report the development of an effective DNA deletion method that relies on a deletion cassette constructed with the Gateway-technique and overlap extension PCR, using the orotidine 5'-phosphate decarboxylase as recyclable marker for selection. By this approach, two adjacent DNA sequences can be sequentially deleted in a single transformation mediated by Agrobacterium tumefaciens, resulting in the deletion of a large DNA fragment. Additionally, the selection marker is spontaneously eliminated in this process. We used this method to successfully remove the mus53 locus of P. microspora. (C) 2016 The Mycological Society of Japan. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.