THE MOLECULAR-BIOLOGY OF SECRETED ENZYME-PRODUCTION BY FUNGI

Enzymes from filamentous fungi are already widely exploited, but new a pplications for known enzymes and new enzymic activities continue to b e found. In addition, enzymes from less amenable non-fungal sources re quire heterologous production and fungi are being used as the producti on hosts. In each case there is a need to improve production and to en sure quality of product. While conventional, mutagenesis-based, strain improvement methods will continue to be applied to enzyme production from filamentous fungi the application of recombinant DNA techniques i s beginning to reveal important information on the molecular basis of fungal enzyme production and this knowledge is now being applied both in the laboratory and commercially. We review the current state of kno wledge on the molecular basis of enzyme production by filamentous fung i. We focus on transcriptional and post-transcriptional regulation of protein production, the transit of proteins through the secretory path way and the structure of the proteins produced including glycosylation .