The development and application of a multiple gene co-silencing system using endogenous URA3 as a reporter gene in Ganoderma lucidum

PLoS One. 2012;7(8):e43737. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0043737. Epub 2012 Aug 24.

Abstract

Ganoderma lucidum is one of the most important medicinal mushrooms; however, molecular genetics research on this species has been limited due to a lack of reliable reverse genetic tools. In this study, the endogenous orotidine 5'-monophosphate decarboxylase gene (URA3) was cloned as a silencing reporter, and four gene-silencing methods using hairpin, sense, antisense, and dual promoter constructs, were introduced into G. lucidum through a simple electroporation procedure. A comparison and evaluation of silencing efficiency demonstrated that all of the four methods differentially suppressed the expression of URA3. Our data unequivocally indicate that the dual promoter silencing vector yields the highest rate of URA3 silencing compared with other vectors (up to 81.9%). To highlight the advantages of the dual promoter system, we constructed a co-silencing system based on the dual promoter method and succeeded in co-silencing URA3 and laccase in G. lucidum. The reduction of the mRNA levels of the two genes were correlated. Thus, the screening efficiency for RNAi knockdown of multiple genes may be improved by the co-silencing of an endogenous reporter gene. The molecular tools developed in this study should facilitate the isolation of genes and the characterization of the functions of multiple genes in this pharmaceutically important species, and these tools should be highly useful for the study of other basidiomycetes.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Base Sequence
  • Gene Silencing*
  • Genes, Reporter / genetics*
  • Molecular Sequence Data
  • Orotidine-5'-Phosphate Decarboxylase / genetics*
  • RNA Interference*
  • RNA, Small Interfering / genetics
  • Reishi / genetics*

Substances

  • RNA, Small Interfering
  • Orotidine-5'-Phosphate Decarboxylase

Associated data

  • GENBANK/JQ406674
  • GENBANK/JQ406675

Grants and funding

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Project No. 30970042), the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (Project No. KYZ201121), the Science and Technology Pillar Program of Jiangsu Province, China (Project No. BE2011312) and the Project Funded by the Priority Academic Program Development of Jiangsu Higher Education Institutions. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.