Gene targeting in Aspergillus fumigatus by homologous recombination is facilitated in a nonhomologous end-joining-deficient genetic background

The akuA gene encoding the Ku70 component of the nonhomologous end-joining machinery was deleted in the opportunistic pathogen Aspergillus fumigatus. No obvious phenotype could be assessed for the corresponding mutant strain but relative frequencies of homologous recombination were increased as deduced from targeting the laccase-encoding abr2 gene.