Van-Tuan Tran

Vietnam National University, Hanoi | VNU · Department of Microbiology - Faculty of Biology

Penicillium chrysogenum is not only an industrially important filamentous fungus for penicillin production, but it also represents as a promising cell factory for production of natural products. Development of efficient transformation systems with suitable selection markers is essential for genetic manipulations in P. chrysogenum. In this study, we...

Purpureocillium lilacinum (formerly Paecilomyces lilacinus) is widely commercialized for controlling plant-parasitic nematodes and represents a potential cell factory for enzyme production. This nematicidal fungus is intrinsically resistant to common antifungal agents used for genetic transformation. Therefore, molecular investigations in P. lilaci...

Destruction of citrus fruits by fungal pathogens during preharvest and postharvest stages can result in severe losses for the citrus industry. Antagonistic microorganisms used as biological agents to control citrus pathogens are considered alternatives to synthetic fungicides. In this study, we aimed to identify fungal pathogens causing dominant di...

The filamentous fungus Aspergillus niger is widely exploited as an industrial workhorse for producing enzymes and organic acids. So far, different genetic tools, including CRISPR/Cas9 genome editing strategies, have been developed for the engineering of A. niger. However, these tools usually require a suitable method for gene transfer into the fung...

The medicinal mushroom Cordyceps militaris is widely exploited in traditional medicine and nutraceuticals in Asian countries. However, fruiting body production in C. militaris is facing degeneration through cultivation batches, and the molecular mechanism of this phenomenon remains unclear. This study showed that fruiting body formation in three di...

Fungi play vital roles in agricultural production. Strategies for strain improvement or molecular inspection of biological processes in fungi usually require genetic tools. Agrobacterium tumefaciens-mediated transformation (ATMT) provides a powerful tool for gene transfer in a broad spectrum of fungal species. In contrast to other transformation me...

Traditional fungal fermentation leading to the production of foods and beverages is an ancient bioprocess but still practices worldwide to date. In Europe, yeasts are extensively involved in brewing beers and wines. Penicillium spp. is used for ripening cheeses and meats. In East Asia, there is a variety of fermented food produced by molds or yeast...

Medicinal plants play important roles in traditional medicine, and numerous compounds among them have been recognized for their antimicrobial activity. However, little is known about the potential of Vietnamese medicinal plants for antifungal activity. In this study, we examined the antagonistic activity of twelve medicinal plant species collected...

Traditional fungal fermentation leading to the production of foods and beverages is an ancient bioprocess but still practices worldwide to date. In Europe, yeasts are extensively involved in the brewing of beers and wines. Penicillium spp. are used for ripening cheeses and meats. In East Asia, there is a variety of fermented food produced by molds...

Genetic engineering of the filamentous fungus Aspergillus oryzae still requires more suitable selection markers for fungal transformation. Our previous work has shown that Agrobacterium tumefaciens-mediated transformation (ATMT) based on the uridine/uracil auxotrophic mechanism with pyrG as the selection marker is very efficient for gene transfer i...

The conserved fungal velvet family regulatory proteins link development and secondary metabolite production. The velvet domain for DNA binding and dimerization is similar to the structure of the Rel homology domain of the mammalian NF-κB transcription factor. A comprehensive study addressed the functions of all four homologs of velvet domain encodi...

Penicillium digitatum exists in nature as a causative agent of green mould disease in citrus fruits at the postharvest stages. Inspections of the molecular mechanism of the host invasion by P. digitatum usually require suitable selection markers for genetic manipulation. In this study, we recruited the phleomycin resistance gene as a selection mark...

Many fungi are able to produce resting structures, which ensure survival and protect them against various stresses in their habitat such as exposure to UV light, temperature variations, drought as well as changing pH and nutrient conditions. Verticillium dahliae is a plant pathogenic fungus that forms melanized resting structures, called microscler...

Mevalonate diphosphate decarboxylase (MVD; EC 4.1.1.33) is a key enzyme of the mevalonic acid (MVA) pathway. In fungi, the MVA pathway functions as upstream of ergosterol biosynthesis, and MVD is also known as Erg19. Previously, we have identified Aoerg19 in Aspergillus oryzae using bioinformatic analysis. In this study, we showed that AoErg19 func...

Currently, the genetic modification of A. oryzae is mainly dependent on protoplast-mediated transformation (PMT). In this study, we established a dual selection marker system in an industrial A. oryzae 3.042 strain by using Agrobacterium tumefaciens-mediated transformation (ATMT). We first constructed a uridine/uracil auxotrophic A. oryzae 3.042 st...

Verticillium dahliae nuclear transcription factors Som1 and Vta3 can rescue adhesion in a FLO 8‐ deficient Saccharomyces cerevisiae strain. Som1 and Vta3 induce the expression of the yeast FLO 1 and FLO 11 genes encoding adhesins. Som1 and Vta3 are sequentially required for root penetration and colonisation of the plant host by V. dahliae . The SOM...

The extraction of genomic DNA from microbial cells plays a significant role in PCR-based applications such as molecular diagnosis, microbial taxonomy, screening of genetically engineered microorganisms, and other such PCR-based applications. Currently, many methods for extraction of genomic DNA from microorganisms have been developed. However, thes...

Penicillium digitatum is a major postharvest pathogen of citrus crops. This fungus broadly spreads worldwide and causes green mold disease, which results in severe losses for citrus production. Understanding of the citrus infection by P. digitatum may help develop effective strategies for controlling this pathogen. In this study, we have characteri...

Aspergillus oryzae is a filamentous fungus widely used in food industry and as a microbial cell factory for recombinant protein production. Due to the inherent resistance of A. oryzae to common antifungal compounds, genetic transformation of this mold usually requires auxotrophic mutants. In this study, we show that Agrobacterium tumefaciens-mediat...

Aspergillus oryzae is a safe mold widely used in food industry. It is also considered as a microbial cell factory for production of recombinant proteins and enzymes. Currently, genetic manipulation of filamentous fungi is achieved via Agrobacterium tumefaciens-mediated transformation methods usually employing antibiotic resistance markers. These me...

The transcription factor Flo8/Som1 controls filamentous growth in Saccharomyces cerevisiae and virulence in the plant pathogen Magnaporthe oryzae. Flo8/Som1 includes a characteristic N-terminal LUG/LUH-Flo8-single-stranded DNA binding (LUFS) domain and is activated by the cAMP dependent protein kinase A signaling pathway. Heterologous SomA from Asp...

Six transcription regulatory genes of the V erticillium plant pathogen, which reprogrammed nonadherent budding yeasts for adhesion, were isolated by a genetic screen to identify control elements for early plant infection. V erticillium transcription activator of adhesion V ta2 is highly conserved in filamentous fungi but not present in yeasts. The...

The plant pathogenic fungus Verticillium longisporum is a causal agent of early senescence and ripening in cruciferous crops like Brassica napus. Verticillium wilts have become serious agricultural threats during the last decades. Verticillium species infect host-plants through the roots and colonize xylem vessels of the host-plant. The xylem fluid...

Verticillium longisporum and Verticillium dahliae are soil borne vascular pathogens. Under standard laboratory growth conditions both fungi infect Arabidopsis thaliana ecotype Col-0 plants via primary and lateral (secondary) root tips and colonize the vascular cylinder including proto- and metaxylem. After entry into the hypocotyl both Verticillium...

The cruciferous fungal pathogen Verticillium longisporum represents an allodiploid hybrid with long spores and almost double the amount of nuclear DNA compared to other Verticillium species. V. longisporum evolved at least three times by hybridization. In Europe, virulent A1xD1 and avirulent A1xD3 hybrids were isolated from the oilseed crop Brassic...

The first leaky auxotrophic mutant for aromatic amino acids of the near-diploid fungal plant pathogen Verticillium longisporum (VL) has been generated. VL enters its host Brassica napus through the roots and colonizes the xylem vessels. The xylem contains little nutrients including low concentrations of amino acids. We isolated the gene Vlaro2 enco...