Molecular cloning and characterization of the glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase gene from Penicillium expansum PE-12.

Penicillium expansum produces large amounts of lipase, which is widely used in laundry detergent and leather industry. We isolated the glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase gene (PeGPD) from P. expansum PE-12 through reverse transcriptase PCR and 5'-3' rapid amplification of cDNA ends (RACE-PCR). The gene is 1266 bp long, including an ORF of 1014 bp, encoding a polypeptide chain of 337 amino acids. A phylogenetic tree based on GPD proteins showed that P. expansum is close to Aspergillus species, but comparatively distant from P. marneffei. Southern blot results revealed a single copy of PeGPD, and expression analysis gave evidence of high expression levels. PeGPD genes have potential for genetic engineering of P. expansum for industrial lipase production.