Selective Isolation of Fusarium graminearum Mutants Derepressed for Production of beta-Glucosidase.

A strain of Fusarium graminearum produced extracellular beta-glucosidase (beta-d-glucoside glucohydrolase [EC 3.2.1.21]) subject to carbon catabolite repression. Derepressed mutants were selectively isolated by the use of 2-deoxyglucose, a nonmetabolizable catabolic repressor. On each plate of cellobiose and 2-deoxy-glucose inoculated with 10 spores and irradiated with UV light, a few colonies emerged. Comparative growth experiments with one of the derepressed mutants and the parent strain showed that the mutant produced beta-glucosidase in the presence of glucose. Furthermore, the same mutant produced more beta-glucosidase than did the wild-type strain on cellobiose alone.