Industrially Important Genes from Trichoderma

Trichoderma as a cosmopolitan genus with industrial, agricultural importance occupies a diversity of habitats. The notoriety of Trichoderma species originates mostly from research on the lignocellulolytic system of T. reesei. Therefore, research on Trichoderma spp. genes and gene families is shifted toward biomass conversion due to the accumulation of more data in this area. However, Trichoderma genomes host other genes and gene families which might have industrial relevance. In this chapter, we will discuss genes and gene families that are or could be important for industrial applications, which include CAZymes (GH, GT, PL, CE, CBM families), small secreted cysteine-rich protein family members (hydrophobins, cerato-platanins), and finally genes encoding for secondary metabolite clusters (DMAT, HYBRID, PKS, NRPS, PKS-like, NRPS-like gene clusters), and follow the general genome mining and industrial gene discovery approaches with a focus on Trichoderma.