Techniques towards automated high-throughput construction of fungal cell factories

Fungi are often used as cell factories for production of valuable products that are relevant to different industries such as food, feed, bulk chemicals including compounds that cannot easily be made by chemical synthesis. More- over, they offer alternative and more sustainable production processes compared to the fossil fuel industry. However, construction and validation of fungal cell factories is typically a difficult and time-consuming process. Thus, our goal is to develop simple and efficient genetic-engineering tools that can facilitate discovery of new genes coding for potentially valuable fungal compounds, help to under- stand fungal biology, and accelerate construction and optimization of fungal cell factories. Here we present an overview of recent genetic engineering techniques that were developed in our research group. We will demonstrate key examples of their applications for construction of yeast and filamentous fungi-based cell factories. Lastly, we will explain how these tools can be adapted to fit automated high-throughput construction workflows.