Transcriptional comparison of the filamentous fungus Neurospora crassa growing on three major monosaccharides D-glucose, D-xylose and L-arabinose

D-glucose, D-xylose and L-arabinose are three major monosaccharides in the plant cell wall. Complete utilization of all three sugars is still a bottleneck for second-generation cellulolytic bioethanol production, especially for L-arabinose. However, little is known about the gene expression profiles during L-arabinose utilization in fungi at genome-wide level and a comparison of the genome-wide fungal response to these three major monosaccharides has not yet been reported. To better understand the microbial response and utilization of L-arabinose for subsequent microbial engineering for co-fermentation all three sugars, we performed transcriptome analysis of N. crassa grown on L-arabinose, compared with that on D-xylose and D-glucose. Overall design: RNA was extracted from cultures of N. carassa in early growth stage growing with D-glucose, L-arabinose or D-xylose as carbon source; duplicate cultures were sampled in some conditions.