Gamma Radiation Induced Mutational Spectrum of Laccase Gene in Pleurotus ostreatus

To investigate the mutational spectrum of laccase (Lac) genes (lac -A and lac -B) involved in degrading lignin which is the recalcitrant cell wall polymer, the genes of the Pleurotus ostreatus mutants induced by gamma ray radiation were amplified by PCR and were cloned. All partial lac-A genes of 4 mutants (PO-6, -7, -14 and -15) consisted of 1763 base pairs due to the deletion of two bases (491-nt and 492-nt) and addition of one base (875-nt) in 1764 base pairs of lac -A gene of PO-1. Totally 36 mutational hot spots were detected and 32 positions were mutated in all of those 4 mutants simultaneously. These mutations were predominantly A : T -> G : C transitions (40%). Putative amino acid sequences of lac -A genes of mutants have one simultaneous mutated residue (from Thr-44 to Ala-44). The 1764 bp of partial lac -B gene was cloned only in PO -5 mutant and contained 19 mutated bases. These mutations were predominantly G : C->A : T transitions (45%). Lac-B protein of PO-5 has two mutated residues of Glu-290 and His-363 from Ala-290 and Phe-363, respectively. The hyper-mutational positions were concentrated in specific regions of between 50-nt and 900-nt in lac genes. These results suggested that the mutational hotspots responded to gamma radiation could be in some genes, at least lac -A and lac -B of p. ostreatus.