Abstract
Mucorales is the largest and most well-studied order of the phylum Mucormycota and is known for its rapid growth rate and various industrial applications. The Mucorales fungi are a fascinating group of filamentous organisms with many uses in research and the industrial and medical fields. They are widely used biotechnological producers of various secondary metabolites and other value-added products. Certain members of Mucorales are extensively used as model organisms for genetic and molecular investigation and have extended our understanding of the metabolisms of other members of this order as well. Compared with other fungal species, our understanding of Mucoralean fungi is still in its infancy, which could be linked to their lack of effective genetic tools. However, recent advancements in molecular tools and approaches, such as the construction of recyclable markers, silencing vectors, and the CRISPR-Cas9-based gene-editing system, have helped us to modify the genomes of these model organisms. Multiple genetic modifications have been shown to generate valuable products on a large scale and helped us to understand the morphogenesis, basic biology, pathogenesis, and host–pathogen interactions of Mucoralean fungi. In this review, we discuss various conventional and modern genetic tools and approaches used for efficient gene modification in industrially important members of Mucorales.
Highlights
A 36.6 Mb genomic sequence of M. circinelloides f. lusitanicus was the first publicly available Mucor genome
Multiple studies have reported that various auxotrophic selection markers should be established to allow multiple-gene introduction. This should be combined with more research to discover the fate of the injected DNA, as it seldom integrates into the genome
Fungi of the phylum Mucoromycota have been reported with various functions and applications in industrial andand medical fields
Summary
Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. A few members of the order Mucorales, such as Mucor, are dimorphic fungi, capable of isotropic and polarized forms; depending on the environmental conditions, they can grow as yeast or hyphae respectively [6]. Their predominant growth form is filamentation, but certain conditions promote yeast growth [7]. Certain members of Mucorales, such as Rhizopus arrhizus, Phycomyces blakesleeanus and M. circinelloides, are extensively used as model organisms for genetic and molecular investigation, including in light sensing [17], signal processing and molecular regulation [18], morphogenesis [19], sexual reproduction and differentiation [20], pathogenicity [21,22], and carotenogenesis [23]. Fungi 2021, 7, 1061 the biological understanding of the genus and fungal biology in general, with particular advancements in the understanding of fungal dimorphism and light-mediated gene regulation [5]
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