Adenosine has been getting increasing attention due to its positive role
in immunomodulation, anti-inflammation, and anti-cancer, etc.. The low
production of Ganoderma adenosine is a bottleneck for clinical
trials and commercial applications. Regulating the expression of key
biosynthetic gene is an optimized way to increase the adenosine
production in submerged culture of Ganoderma lucidum. In this
study, we correlated the expression of adenosine synthase genes
(including GlATIC, GlPNP, GlADK) with the adenosine
content. The results showed that GlPNP was positively correlated
with Ganoderma adenosine contents. Then the key biosynthetic gene
GlPNP was cloned, characterized and overexpressed in G.
lucidum. The cDNA of GlPNP gene was 969-bp in length, with a
predicted molecular weight of 34.6 kDa. The GlPNP displayed a trimeric
quaternary structure. The transcript levels of GlPNP
overexpression transformants were approximately 2.9-3.9-fold higher than
those of the WT strains on day 4, while the adenosine contents were
increased by 78% and 63%, respectively, by compared with
vector-containing strain. The GlPNP overexpression strains showed
decreased colony growth and reduced biomass. In conclusion, GlPNP
gene overexpression is an effective strategy to improve the production
of adenosine. This study is the first report about the manipulation of
adenosine biosynthesis in medicinal fungi.