Patent attributes
Provided herein are methods and compositions for increasing the production of one or more cellulases from a fungal host cell. The disclosure is based, on the surprising discovery that mis-expression of the transcriptional regulator clr-2 in a filamentous fungal cell was able to induce expression of cellulase genes under non-inducing or starvation conditions, resulting in increased secretion of cellulases from the cell. Advantageously, mis-expression of the transcription factor clr-2 in a filamentous fungal cell cultured in the absence of cellulose or cellobiose results in increased secretion of cellulases. The disclosure relates inter alia to a method of degrading cellulose-containing material, to a method of increasing the production of one or more cellulases from a fungal cell and to a method of reducing the viscosity of a pretreated biomass material, by contacting pretreated biomass material with a fungal host cell containing at least one recombinant nucleic acid encoding clr-2 or a related transcription factor.
