Agrobacterium tumefaciens-mediated transformation of Trichoderma harzianum CFAM-422 using an herbicide resistance gene as selection marker
The use of lignocellulosic materials that are the constituents of the plant cell wall have shown to be a great opportunity for sustainable industrial development. The polysaccharide part of these materials, the cellulose and the hemicellulose, can be degraded into their monomeric sugars by microorganisms, such as Trichoderma harzianum, that secrete extracellular enzymes. However, the industrial production of hydrolytic enzymes rely on the development of molecular biology tools to achieve the economical production of enzyme pools with greater hydrolytic potential. In this work the fungus T. harzianum (CFAM-422) was transformed by Agrobacterium tumefaciens and a herbicide was used as a selective agent, making it an efficient strategy to obtain strains with higher potential for the hydrolysis of lignocellulosic materials.