秦丽娜研究员

Lina Qin

Principal Investigator

Professor of Microbiology, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology

College of Life Sciences, Fujian Normal University (Qishan Campus),

Fuzhou City, Fujian Province 350117, China

Lina Qin is a professor in College of Life Sciences at Fujian Normal University. She received her Bachelor's degree in Biotechnology from Shanxi University (2005) and received her Master’s degree in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from Fujian Normal University (2008).She earned her PhD degree in biochemistry and molecular biology from Institute of Microbiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences (2012). After a short postdoctoral training in the Institute of Process Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences (2012-2013), she joined in Energy Biosciences Institute at UC Berkeley in the USA as a postdoctoral scholar (2014-2017). She then went back to China and started her independent career in Fujian Normal University in August 2017. She has become a full professor since January 2019.

Research Areas

Topic 1:Molecular mechanism of protein secretion in saprophytic filamentous fungi

     Protein biosynthesis, modification, processing and secretion are one of the critical basic scientific questions in life sciences. As the main decomposer of lignocellulosic biomass, saprophytic filamentous fungus has evolved a large capacity of protein secretion. For example, some industrial mutants of Trichoderma reesei have a protein secretion capacity of over 100 g/L. However, little is known about the molecular mechanism behind this property. Our research group will focus on the secretion pathway of the plant cell wall degrading associated proteins in the model filamentous fungus Neurospora crassa and Trichoderma reesei by using variety of molecular, genetic and biochemical techniques developed for these two organisms. Understanding the molecular basis of the protein secretion in model systems will provide new clues and strategies for industrial strain engineering to improve the protein expression and secretion.

Topic 2:Characterization of novel enzymes from thermophilic fungi and development of thermophilic fungi as new sources for production of industrial enzymes

    Biorefinery is the sustainable processing biomass into a variety of bio-products. Many of these processes require enzymes which are stable at high temperature to enhance mass transfer, reduce substrate viscosity and lower risk of contamination. Many thermophilic fungi can secrete thermostable biomass-degrading enzymes including lignocellulases, proteases, amylases, laccases, chitinases, lipases and esterases, which holds a great promise in industrial application. In addition, as a natural plant-biomass degrader, thermophilic fungi have evolved an efficient protein secretion system. Therefore, they are also potentially likely to be developed into cell factories to produce heterologous recombinant proteins at elevated temperatures. Some unpublished data from Louis Glass’s lab (UC Berkeley)indicated that Chaetomium thermophilum displayed substantially higher cellulose degrading activity and Melanocarpus albomyces exhibited a considerable total extracellular protein production. Both C. thermophilum and M. albomyces are closely related to N. crassa. Our research group will currently focus on characterization of novel enzymes from C. thermophilum and developing M. albomyces as an excellent host for protein expression by using variety of knowledge and technology developed in N. crassa and T. reesei.

Topic 3:Antifungal mechanism of new discovered antifungal compounds

    The development of bioinformatics, omics, mass spectrometry and high-throughput screening techniques inspired more and more novel nature products isolated and identified. Many of these natural compounds have the antifungal activities with unknown mode of action. Our group will collaborate with the research group, whose research interest is discovery of new antifungal natural products, to further study the antifungal mechanism of these novel compounds in the model filamentous fungi N. crassa by using variety of molecular, genetic and biochemical techniques developed for N. crassa. We currently focus on a broad spectrum antifungal compound HSAF, which is isolated from Lysobacter bacteria by Liangcheng Du’s group from the university of Nebraska-Lincoln.

Publications

1.  Fei Gao, Zhenzhen Hao, Xianhua Sun, Lina Qin, Tong Zhao, Weiquan Liu, Huiying Luo, Bin Yao and Xiaoyun Su*. A versatile system for fast screening and isolation of Trichoderma reesei cellulase hyperproducers based on DsRed and fluorescence-assisted cell sorting. Biotechnology for Biofuels, 2018; 11: 261. doi: 10.1186/s13068-018-1264-z

2. Lina Qin*, Xiangzhang Jiang, Zhiyang Dong, Jianzhong Huang and Xiuzhen Chen*. Identification of two integration sites in favor of transgene expression in Trichoderma reesei, Biotechnology for Biofuels, 2018,11：142. DOI : 10.1186/s13068-018-1139-3.

3.  Xianhua Sun, Xianli Xue, Mengzhu Li, Fei Gao, Zhenzhen Hao, Huoqing Huang, Huiying Luo, Lina Qin*, Bin Yao*, Xiaoyun Su*. Efficient co-production of mannanase and cellulase by transformation of a codon-optimized endo-mannanase gene from Aspergillus niger into Trichoderma reesei. Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry. 2017 Dec 20;65(50):11046-11053. doi: 10.1021/acs.jafc.7b05114.

4. Lina Qin, Vincent W. Wu, N. Louis Glass*. Deciphering the Regulatory Network between the SREBP pathway and Protein Secretion in Neurospora crassa. mBio, 2017, 8(2): e00233-17. Doi: 10.1128/mBio.00233-17.

5.  Yi Xiong, Vincent W. Wu, Andrea Lubbe, Lina Qin , Siwen Deng , Megan Kennedy, Diane Bauer, Vasanth R. Singan, Kerrie Barry, Trent R. Northen, Igor V. Grigoriev, N. Louise Glass*. A Fungal Transcription Factor Essential for Starch Degradation Regulates Primary Carbon and Nitrogen Metabolism. Plos Genetics, 2017, 13(5): e1006737. doi:10.1371/journal.pgen.1006737

6.  Lori B. Huberman, Jason Liu, Lina Qin and N. Louise Glass*. Regulation of the lignocellulolytic response in filamentous fungi. Fungal Biology Reviews, 2016, 30:101-111.

7.  Morgann C Reilly, Lina Qin, James P Craig, Trevol L Starr and N Louise Glass*.Deletion of homologs of the SREBP pathway results in hyper-production of cellulasesin Neurospora crassa and Trichoderma reesei. Biotechnology for Biofuels 2015, 8:121. doi: 10.1186/s13068-015-0297-9.

8.  Fei Chen, Xiuzhen Chen, Xiaoyun Su, Lina Qin, Zhenbang Huang, Yong Tao and Zhiyang Dong*. An Ime2-like mitogen-activated protein kinase is involved in cellulaseexpression in the filamentous fungus Trichoderma reesei, Biotechnology letters, 2015,37(10): 2055-62.

9.  Zhenbang Huang, Xiuzhen Chen, Lina Qin, Hongqing Wu, Xiaoyun Su andZhiyang Dong*. A novel major facilitator transporter TrSTR1 is essential for pentose utilization and involved in xylanase induction in Trichoderma reesei, Biochemicaland biophysical research communications, 2015, 460(3): 663-669.

10.  Fei Chen, Xiuzhen Chen, Lina Qin, Yong Tao and Zhiyang Dong*. Characterizationand homologous overexpression of an N-acetylglucosaminidase Nag1 from Trichoderma reesei，Biochemical and biophysical research communications, 2015,459(2): 184-188.

11.  Xiao-yun Su*, Lina Qin*, Zhi-yang Dong. RNAi-mediated gene silencing in Trichoderma--principles and applications. A chapter in the book of ‘Trichoderma:Their uses and applications in bioengineering and biotechnology’, 2014, Doi:10.1016/B978-0-444- 59576-8.00015-1 Elsevier .

12. Lina Qin, Fu-rong Cai, Xin-rui Dong, Zhen-bang Huang, Yong Tao, Jian-zhongHuang*, Zhi-yang Dong*. Improved production of heterologous lipase in Trichoderma reesei by RNAi mediated gene silencing of an endogenic highly expressed gene. Bioresource Technology, 2012, 109:116-122.