Loss of Ku70 promotes mononucleate conidiation and homologous recombination in Phanerochaete chrysosporium.

Loss of Ku70 in Phanerochaete chrysosporium increases homologous recombination from ~2% to ~66% and promotes mononucleate conidiation.

• Why it matters: Improving genome editing precision in P. chrysosporium is vital for understanding its ligninolytic mechanisms and enhancing industrial applications, but current methods are imprecise due to dominant non-homologous end joining.
• What they did: The study constructed a ku70 Δ mutant in a meiotic homokaryon, revealing that Ku70 loss minimally affects growth but significantly boosts homologous recombination and unexpectedly promotes mononucleate conidiation, which may aid in mutant isolation.
• The result: This work provides a valuable genetic tool for precise genome editing and suggests c-NHEJ influences nuclear regulation during conidiation, enabling future research and biotechnological exploitation of P. chrysosporium.