Transcriptome Profile of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbon-Degrading Fungi Isolated from <i>Taxus rhizosphere</i>

The present study aims to examine polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH)-degrading fungal strains isolated from rhizosphere soil of Taxus mairei. Talaromyces verruculosus strain DJTU-SJ5 showed the higher PAH degradation than other strains. Improved degradation of five PAHs was attained using the two-member consortium. The industrial potential of DJTU-SJ5 has been highlighted. The transcriptome profiles of DJTU-SJ5 before and after PAH challenge were decoded by high-throughput RNA sequencing. A total of 33,084 unigenes were obtained by de novo assembly of 19.9 Gb clean sequencing reads; 10,532, 1,104 and 11,779 unigenes were expressed distinctly between control and phenanthrene (phen)-treated samples; control and pyrene (pyre)-treated samples, and phen and pyre respectively. These included numerous PAH degradation, defence and stress-related genes. The degradation pathway of PAHs in strain DJTU-SJ5 is proposed based on the metabolites and transcriptome analyses.