Expression and biochemical characterization of a Bacillus subtilis catalase in Pichia pastoris X-33

Catalase, which catalyzes the decomposition of H₂O₂ to H₂O and O₂, is widely used to reduce H₂O₂ in industrial applications, such as in food processing, textile dyeing and wastewater treatment. In this study, the catalase (KatA) from Bacillus subtilis was cloned and expressed in the yeast Pichia pastoris X-33. The effect of the promoter in the expression plasmid on the activity level of the secreted KatA protein was also studied. First, the gene encoding KatA was cloned and inserted into a plasmid containing an inducible alcohol oxidase 1 promoter (pAOX1) or a constitutive glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase promoter (pGAP). The recombinant plasmids were validated by colony PCR and sequencing and then linearized and transformed into the yeast P. pastoris X-33 for expression. With the promoter pAOX1, the maximum yield of KatA in the culture medium reached 338.8 ± 9.6 U/mL in 2 days of shake flask cultivation, which was approximately 2.1-fold greater than the maximum yield obtained with the promoter pGAP. The expressed KatA was then purified from the culture medium by anion exchange chromatography, and its specific activity was determined to be 14826.58 U/mg. Finally, the purified KatA exhibited optimum activity at 25 °C and pH 11.0. Its K_m for hydrogen peroxide was 10.9 ± 0.5 mM, and its k_cat/K_m was 5788.1 ± 25.6 s^-1 mM^-1. Through the work presented in this article, we have therefore demonstrated efficient expression and purification of KatA in P. pastoris, which might be advantageous for scaling up the production of KatA for use in a variety of biotechnological applications.

Molecular Modification of Kex2 P1' Site Enhances Expression and Druggability of Fungal Defensin

Pichia pastoris is the widely used expression system for producing recombinant secretory proteins. It is known that Kex2 protease plays a vital role in the process of protein secretion, in which the P1' site affects its cleavage efficiency. To enhance the expression level of fungal defensin-derived peptide NZ2114, this work attempts to optimize the P1' site of Kex2 by replacing it with 20 amino acids in turn. The results showed that when the amino acid of the P1' site was changed to Phe (F), the yield of target peptide significantly increased from 2.39 g/L to 4.81 g/L. Additionally, the novel peptide F-NZ2114 (short for FNZ) showed strong antimicrobial activity against Gram-positive (G⁺) bacteria, especially for Staphylococcus aureus and Streptococcus agalactiae (MIC: 4-8 μg/mL). The FNZ was very stable and retained high activity in various conditions; in addition, a low cytotoxicity and no hemolysis were observed even at a high concentration of 128 μg/mL, and a longer postantibiotic effect was reached. The above results indicate that this engineering strategy provided a feasible optimization scheme for enhancing the expression level and druggability of this antimicrobial peptide from fungal defensin and other similar targets by this updated recombinant yeast.

Metabolic Engineering of Pichia pastoris for the Production of Triacetic Acid Lactone

Triacetic acid lactone (TAL) is a promising renewable platform polyketide with broad biotechnological applications. In this study, we constructed an engineered Pichia pastoris strain for the production of TAL. We first introduced a heterologous TAL biosynthetic pathway by integrating the 2-pyrone synthase encoding gene from Gerbera hybrida (Gh2PS). We then removed the rate-limiting step of TAL synthesis by introducing the posttranslational regulation-free acetyl-CoA carboxylase mutant encoding gene from S. cerevisiae (ScACC1*) and increasing the copy number of Gh2PS. Finally, to enhance intracellular acetyl-CoA supply, we focused on the introduction of the phosphoketolase/phosphotransacetylase pathway (PK pathway). To direct more carbon flux towards the PK pathway for acetyl-CoA generation, we combined it with a heterologous xylose utilization pathway or endogenous methanol utilization pathway. The combination of the PK pathway with the xylose utilization pathway resulted in the production of 825.6 mg/L TAL in minimal medium with xylose as the sole carbon source, with a TAL yield of 0.041 g/g xylose. This is the first report on TAL biosynthesis in P. pastoris and its direct synthesis from methanol. The present study suggests potential applications in improving the intracellular pool of acetyl-CoA and provides a basis for the construction of efficient cell factories for the production of acetyl-CoA derived compounds.

Development of an antibody-ligand fusion protein scFvCD16A-sc4-1BBL in Komagataella phaffii with stimulatory activity for Natural Killer cells

BACKGROUND

Natural killer (NK) cell-based immunotherapies have demonstrated substantial potential for the treatment of hematologic malignancies. However, its application is limited due to the difficulty in the production of a large number of NK cells in vitro and the insufficient therapeutic efficacy against solid tumors in vivo. Engineered antibodies or fusion proteins targeting activating receptors and costimulatory molecules of NK cells have been developed to encounter these problems. They are mostly produced in mammalian cells with high cost and long processing times. Yeast systems, such as Komagataella phaffii, present a convenient manipulation of microbial systems with the key advantages of improved folding machinery and low cost.

RESULTS

In this study, we designed an antibody fusion protein scFvCD16A-sc4-1BBL, composed of the single chain variant fragment (scFv) of anti-CD16A antibody and the three extracellular domains (ECDs) of human 4-1BBL in a single-chain format (sc) with the GS linker, aiming to boost NK cell proliferation and activation. This protein complex was produced in the K. phaffii X33 system and purified by affinity chromatography and size exclusion chromatography. The scFvCD16A-sc4-1BBL complex showed comparable binding abilities to its two targets human CD16A and 4-1BB as its two parental moieties (scFvCD16A and monomer ECD (mn)4-1BBL). scFvCD16A-sc4-1BBL specifically stimulated the expansion of peripheral blood mononuclear cell (PBMC)-derived NK cells in vitro. Furthermore, in the ovarian cancer xenograft mouse model, adoptive NK cell infusion combined with intraperitoneal (i.p) injection of scFvCD16A-sc4-1BBL further reduced the tumor burden and prolonged the survival time of mice.

CONCLUSION

Our studies demonstrate the feasibility of the expression of the antibody fusion protein scFvCD16A-sc4-1BBL in K. phaffii with favourable properties. scFvCD16A-sc4-1BBL stimulates PBMC-derived NK cell expansion in vitro and improves the antitumor activity of adoptively transferred NK cells in a murine model of ovarian cancer and may serve as a synergistic drug for NK immunotherapy in future research and applications.

Affinity-based and in a single step purification of recombinant horseradish peroxidase A2A isoenzyme produced by Pichia pastoris

Horseradish peroxidase (HRP) is an oxidoreductase enzyme and oxidizes various inorganic and organic compounds. It has wide application areas such as immunological tests, probe-based test techniques, removal of phenolic pollutants from wastewater and organic synthesis. HRP is found in the root of the horseradish plant as a mixture of different isoenzymes, and it is very difficult to separate these enzymes from each other. In this regard, recombinant production is a very advantageous method in terms of producing the desired isoenzyme. This study was performed to produce HRP A2A isoenzyme extracellularly in Pichia pastoris and to purify this enzyme in a single step using a 3-amino-4-chloro benzohydrazide affinity column. First, codon-optimized HRP A2A gene was amplified and inserted into pPICZαC. So, obtained pPICZαC-HRPA2A was cloned in E. coli cells. Then, P. pastoris X-33 cells were transformed with linearized recombinant DNA and a yeast clone was cultivated for extracellular recombinant HRP A2A (rHRP A2A) enzyme production. Then, the purification of this enzyme was performed in a single step by affinity chromatography. The molecular mass of purified rHRP A2A enzyme was found to be about 40 kDa. According to characterization studies of the purified enzyme, the optimum pH and ionic strength for the rHRP A2A isoenzyme were determined to be 6.0 and 0.04 M, respectively, and o-dianisidine had the highest specificity with the lowest Km and Vmax values. Thus, this is an economical procedure to purify HRP A2A isoenzyme without time-consuming and laborious isolation from an isoenzyme mixture.

Direct production of 4-hydroxybenzoic acid from cellulose using cellulase-displaying Pichia pastoris

4-hydroxybenzoic acid (4-HBA) is an industrially important aromatic compound, and there is an urgent need to establish a bioprocess to produce this compound in a sustainable and environmentally friendly manner from renewable feedstocks such as cellulosic biomass. Here, we developed a bioprocess to directly produce 4-HBA from cellulose using a recombinant Pichia pastoris strain that displays heterologous cellulolytic enzymes on its cell surface via the glycosylphosphatidylinositol (GPI)-anchoring system. β-glucosidase (BGL) from Aspergillus aculeatus, endoglucanase (EG) from Trichoderma reesei, and cellobiohydrolase (CBH) from Talaromyces emersonii were co-displayed on the cell surface of P. pastoris using an appropriate GPI-anchoring domain for each enzyme. The cell-surface cellulase activity was further enhanced using P. pastoris SPI1 promoter- and secretion signal sequences. The resulting strains efficiently hydrolyzed phosphoric acid swollen cellulose (PASC) to glucose. Then, we expressed a highly 4-HBA-resistant chorismate pyruvate-lyase (UbiC) from Providencia rustigianii in the cellulase-displaying strain. This strain produced 975 mg/L of 4-HBA from PASC, which corresponding to 36.8% of the theoretical maximum yield, after 96 h of batch fermentation without the addition of commercial cellulase. This 4-HBA yield was over two times higher than that obtained from glucose (12.3% of the theoretical maximum yield). To our knowledge, this is the first report on the direct production of an aromatic compound from cellulose using cellulase-displaying yeast.

De novo biosynthesis of 2'-fucosyllactose in engineered Pichia pastoris

PURPOSE

Pichia pastoris is well known for its ability to produce short and low-immunogenic humanized glycosyl chains onto recombinant glycoproteins, it was thus speculated to be applicable to synthesize oligosaccharides. In this study, generally recognized as safe (GRAS) microorganism Pichia pastoris GS115 was tested for its potential to be used as a new synthetic chassis to produce the most abundant human milk oligosaccharide 2'-fucosyllactose (2'-FL).

METHODS

To enable the de novo synthesis of 2'-FL, lactose transporter lac12, two enzymes of gmd, gmer, and fucosyltransferases futC were integrated into the genome of P. pastoris, under the control of constitutive P_GAP promoter.

RESULTS

The resulting recombinant yeasts yielded up to 0.276 g/L through culture optimization in a 5 L bioreactor.

CONCLUSION

To our knowledge, this is the first report of 2'-FL production in engineered Pichia pastoris. This work is a good starting point to produce 2'-FL using Pichia pastoris as a viable chassis.

Is heterogeneity in large-scale bioreactors a real problem in recombinant protein synthesis by Pichia pastoris?

Culture medium heterogeneity is inherent in industrial bioreactors. The loss of mixing efficiency in a large-scale bioreactor yields to the formation of concentration gradients. Consequently, cells face oscillatory culture conditions that may deeply affect their metabolism. Herein, cell response to transient perturbations, namely high methanol concentration combined with hypoxia, has been investigated using a two stirred-tank reactor compartiments (STR-STR) scale-down system and a Pichia pastoris strain expressing the gene encoding enhanced green fluorescent protein (eGFP) under the control of the alcohol oxidase 1 (AOX1) promoter. Cell residence times under transient stressing conditions were calculated based on the typical hydraulic circulation times of bioreactors of tens and hundreds cubic metres. A significant increase in methanol and oxygen uptake rates was observed as the cell residence time was increased. Stressful culture conditions impaired biomass formation and triggered cell flocculation. More importantly, both expression levels of genes under the control of pAOX1 promoter and eGFP specific fluorescence were higher in those oscillatory culture conditions, suggesting that those a priori unfavourable culture conditions in fact benefit to recombinant protein productivity. Flocculent cells were also identified as the most productive as compared to ovoid cells. KEY POINTS: • Transient hypoxia and high methanol trigger high level of recombinant protein synthesis • In Pichia pastoris, pAOX1 induction is higher in flocculent cells • Medium heterogeneity leads to morphological diversification.

Effect of N-acetyl-l-cysteine on Cell Phenotype and Autophagy in Pichia pastoris Expressing Human Serum Albumin and Porcine Follicle-Stimulating Hormone Fusion Protein

Pichia pastoris is widely used for the production of recombinant proteins, but the low secretion efficiency hinders its wide application in biopharmaceuticals. Our previous study had shown that N-acetyl-l-cysteine (NAC) promotes human serum albumin and porcine follicle-stimulating hormone fusion protein (HSA-pFSHβ) secretion by increasing intracellular GSH levels, but the downstream impact mechanism is not clear. In this study, we investigated the roles of autophagy as well as cell phenotype in NAC promoting HSA-pFSHβ secretion. Our results showed that NAC slowed down the cell growth rate, and its effects were unaffected by Congo Red and Calcofluor White. Moreover, NAC affected cell wall composition by increasing chitin content and decreasing β-1,3-glucan content. In addition, the expressions of vesicular pathway and autophagy-related genes were significantly decreased after NAC treatment. Further studies revealed that autophagy, especially the cytoplasm-to-vacuole targeting (Cvt) pathway, mitophagy and pexophagy, was significantly increased with time, and NAC has a promoting effect on autophagy, especially at 48 h and 72 h of NAC treatment. However, the disruption of mitophagy receptor Atg32, but not pexophagy receptor Atg30, inhibited HSA-pFSHβ production, and neither of them inhibited the NAC-promoted effect of HSA-pFSHβ. In conclusion, vesicular transport, autophagy and cell wall are all involved in the NAC-promoted HSA-pFSHβ secretion and that disruption of the autophagy receptor alone does not inhibit the effect of NAC.

Synthetic activation of yeast stress response improves secretion of recombinant proteins

Yeasts, such as Pichia pastoris (syn Komagataella spp.), are particularly suitable expression systems for emerging classes of recombinant proteins. Among them, recombinant antibody fragments, such as single-chain variable fragments (scFv) and single-domain antibodies (VHH), are credible alternatives to monoclonal antibodies. The availability of powerful genetic engineering and synthetic biology tools has facilitated improvement of this cell factory to overcome certain limitations. However, cell engineering to improve secretion often remains a trial-and-error approach and improvements are often specific to the protein produced. Where multiple genetic interventions are needed to remove bottlenecks in the process of recombinant protein secretion, this leads to a high number of combinatorial possibilities for creation of new production strains. Therefore, our aim was to exploit whole transcriptional programs (stress response pathways) in order to simplify the strain engineering of new production strains. Indeed, the artificial activation of the general stress response transcription factor Msn4, as well as synthetic versions thereof, could replace the secretion enhancing effect of several cytosolic chaperones. Greater than 4-fold improvements in recombinant protein secretion were achieved by overexpression of MSN4 or synMSN4, either alone or in combination with Hac1 or ER chaperones. With this concept we were able to successfully engineer strains reaching titers of more than 2.5 g/L scFv and 8 g/L VHH in bioreactor cultivations. This increased secretion capacity of different industrially relevant model proteins indicates that MSN4 overexpression most likely represents a general concept to improve recombinant protein production in yeast.

Minimal purification method enables developability assessment of recombinant proteins

Analytical characterization of proteins is a critical task for developing therapeutics and subunit vaccine candidates. Assessing candidates with a battery of biophysical assays can inform the selection of one that exhibits properties consistent with a given target product profile. Such assessments, however, require several milligrams of purified protein, and ideal assessments of the physicochemical attributes of the proteins should not include unnatural modification like peptide tags for purification. Here we describe a fast two-stage minimal purification process for recombinant proteins secreted by the yeast host Komagataella phaffii from 20 mL culture supernatant. This method comprises a buffer exchange and filtration with a Q-membrane filter and we demonstrate sufficient removal of key supernatant impurities including host-cell proteins and DNA with yields of 1 - 2 mg and >60% purity. This quality level enables characterizing the resulting proteins using target binding, mass spectrometry and differential scanning calorimetry. We first evaluated this method to purify an engineered SARS-CoV-2 subunit protein antigen and compared the purified protein to a conventional two-step chromatographic process. We then applied this method to compare several SARS-CoV-2 RBD sequences. Finally, we show this simple process can be applied to a range of other proteins, including a single-domain antibody, a rotavirus protein subunit, and a human growth hormone. This simple and fast developability methodology obviates the need for genetic tagging or full chromatographic development when assessing and comparing early-stage protein therapeutics and vaccine candidates produced in K. phaffii. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

Designing and developing a sensitive and specific SARS-CoV-2 RBD IgG detection kit for identifying positive human samples

BACKGROUND

More than 3 y into the coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) continues to undergo mutations. In this context, the Receptor Binding Domain (RBD) is the most antigenic region among the SARS-CoV-2 Spike protein and has emerged as a promising candidate for immunological development. We designed an IgG-based indirect enzyme-linked immunoassay (ELISA) kit based on recombinant RBD, which was produced from the laboratory to 10 L industry scales in Pichia pastoris.

METHODS

A recombinant-RBD comprising 283 residues (31 kDa) was constructed after epitope analyses. The target gene was initially cloned into an Escherichia coli TOP10 genotype and transformed into Pichia pastoris CBS7435 muts for protein production. Production was scaled up in a 10 L fermenter after a 1 L shake-flask cultivation. The product was ultrafiltered and purified using ion-exchange chromatography. IgG-positive human sera for SARS-CoV-2 were employed by an ELISA test to evaluate the antigenicity and specific binding of the produced protein.

RESULTS

Bioreactor cultivation yielded 4 g/l of the target protein after 160 h of fermentation, and ion-exchange chromatography indicated a purity > 95%. A human serum ELISA test was performed in 4 parts, and the ROC area under the curve (AUC) was > 0.96 for each part. The mean specificity and sensitivity of each part was 100% and 91.5%, respectively.

CONCLUSION

A highly specific and sensitive IgG-based serologic kit was developed for improved diagnostic purposes in patients with COVID-19 after generating an RBD antigen in Pichia pastoris at laboratory and 10 L fermentation scales.

Optimized Expression and Isolation of Recombinant Active Secreted Proteases Using Pichia pastoris

Recombinant proteins of high quality are crucial starting materials for all downstream applications, but the inherent complexities of proteins and their expression and purification create significant challenges. The Pichia pastoris yeast is a highly useful eukaryotic protein expression system. Pichia's low cost, genetic tractability, rapid gene expression, and scalability make it an ideal expression system for foreign proteins. Here, we developed a protocol that has optimized the expression and isolation of a non-mammalian secreted metalloprotease, where we can routinely generate recombinant proteins that are pure and proteolytically active. We maximized growth and protein production by altering the feeding regime, through implementation of a non-fermentable and non-repressing carbon source during the methanol-induction phase. This approach increased biomass production and yielded milligrams of recombinant protein. Downstream applications involving active, recombinant fungal proteases, such as conjugation to nanoparticles and structure-related studies, are greatly facilitated with this improved, standardized approach. Graphical abstract.

Purification and characterization of aspartic protease from Aspergillus niger and its efficient hydrolysis applications in soy protein degradation

BACKGROUND

Adding acid protease to feed can enhance protein digestibility, boost feed utilization, and stimulate the growth of animals in breading industry. In order to obtain an acid protease with high hydrolysis efficiency to plant protein, in this study, an aspartic protease from Aspergillus niger was heterologous expressed in Pichia pastoris (P. pastoris). The enzymatic properties and application in soybean protein degradation were also studied.

RESULTS

In our investigation, the high aspartic protease (Apa1) activity level of 1500 U/mL was achieved in 3 L bioreactor. After dialysis and anion exchange chromatography, the total enzyme activity and specific enzyme activity were 9412 U and 4852 U/mg, respectively. The molecular weight of the purified protease was 50 kDa, while the optimal pH and temperature were 3.0 and 50 °C, respectively. It was stable at pH 2.0-5.0 and 30-60 °C. Apa1 was used to hydrolyze soybean isolate protein (SPI) at 40 °C and pH 3.0, and a high hydrolysis degree (DH) of 61.65% was achieved. In addition, the molecular weight distribution of SPI hydrolysis products was studied, the result showed that the hydrolysis products were primarily oligopeptides with molecular weights of 189 Da or below.

CONCLUSIONS

In this study, Apa1 was successfully expressed in P. pastoris and high expression level was obtained. In addition, the highest protein hydrolysis rate to SPI degradation so far was achieved. The acid protease in this study provides a new protease that is suitable for the feed industry, which will be very helpful to improve the feed utilization and promote the development of the breeding industry.

Improving the catalytic activity of β-glucosidase from Coniophora puteana via semi-rational design for efficient biomass cellulose degradation

In order to improve the degradation activity of β-glucosidase (CpBgl) from Coniophora puteana, the structural modification was conducted. The enzyme activity of mutants CpBgl-Q20C and CpBgl-A240S was increased by 65.75% and 58.58%, respectively. These mutants exhibited maximum activity under the same conditions as wild-type CpBgl (65 ℃ and pH 5.0), slightly improved stabilities compared that of the wild-type, and remarkably enhanced activities in the presence of Mn²⁺ or Fe²⁺. The V_max of CpBgl-Q20C and CpBgl-A240S was increased to 138.18 and 125.14 μmol/mg/min, respectively, from 81.34 μmol/mg/min of the wild-type, and the catalysis efficiency (k_cat/K_m) of CpBgl-Q20C (335.79 min^-1/mM) and CpBgl-A240S (281.51 min^-1/mM) was significantly improved compared with that of the wild-type (149.12 min^-1/mM). When the mutant CpBgl-Q20C were used in the practical degradation of different biomasses, the glucose yields of filter paper, corncob residue, and fungi mycelia residue were increased by 17.68%, 25.10%, and 20.37%, respectively. The spatial locations of the mutation residues in the architecture of CpBgl and their unique roles in the enzyme-substrate binding and catalytic efficiency were probed in this work. These results laid a foundation for evolution of other glycoside hydrolases and the industrial bio-degradation of cellulosic biomass in nature.

Protease-Independent Production of Poliovirus Virus-like Particles in Pichia pastoris: Implications for Efficient Vaccine Development and Insights into Capsid Assembly

The production of enterovirus virus-like particles (VLPs) that lack the viral genome have great potential as vaccines for a number of diseases, such as poliomyelitis and hand, foot, and mouth disease. These VLPs can mimic empty capsids, which are antigenically indistinguishable from mature virions, produced naturally during viral infection. Both in infection and in vitro, capsids and VLPs are generated by the cleavage of the P1 precursor protein by a viral protease. Here, using a stabilized poliovirus 1 (PV-1) P1 sequence as an exemplar, we show the production of PV-1 VLPs in Pichia pastoris in the absence of the potentially cytotoxic protease, 3CD, instead using the porcine teschovirus 2A (P2A) peptide sequence to terminate translation between individual capsid proteins. We compare this to protease-dependent production of PV-1 VLPs. Analysis of all permutations of the order of the capsid protein sequences revealed that only VP3 could be tagged with P2A and maintain native antigenicity. Transmission electron microscopy of these VLPs reveals the classic picornaviral icosahedral structure. Furthermore, these particles were thermostable above 37°C, demonstrating their potential as next generation vaccine candidates for PV. Finally, we believe the demonstration that native antigenic VLPs can be produced using protease-independent methods opens the possibility for future enteroviral vaccines to take advantage of recent vaccine technological advances, such as adenovirus-vectored vaccines and mRNA vaccines, circumventing the potential problems of cytotoxicity associated with 3CD, allowing for the production of immunogenic enterovirus VLPs in vivo. IMPORTANCE The widespread use of vaccines has dramatically reduced global incidence of poliovirus infections over a period of several decades and now the wild-type virus is only endemic in Pakistan and Afghanistan. However, current vaccines require the culture of large quantities of replication-competent virus for their manufacture, thus presenting a potential risk of reintroduction into the environment. It is now widely accepted that vaccination will need to be extended posteradication into the foreseeable future to prevent the potentially catastrophic reintroduction of poliovirus into an immunologically naive population. It is, therefore, imperative that novel vaccines are developed which are not dependent on the growth of live virus for their manufacture. We have expressed stabilized virus-like particles in yeast, from constructs that do not require coexpression of the protease. This is an important step in the development of environmentally safe and commercially viable vaccines against polio, which also provides some intriguing insights into the viral assembly process.

Expression in Pichia pastoris of human antibody fragments that neutralize venoms of Mexican scorpions

The methylotrophic yeast Pichia pastoris has been one of the most widely used organisms in recent years as an expression system for a wide variety of recombinant proteins with therapeutic potential. Its popularity as an alternative system to Escherichia coli is mainly due to the easy genetic manipulation and the ability to produce high levels of heterologous proteins, either intracellularly or extracellularly. Being a eukaryotic organism, P. pastoris carries out post-translational modifications that allow it to produce soluble and correctly folded recombinant proteins. This work, evaluated the expression capacity in P. pastoris of two single-chain variable fragments (scFvs) of human origin, 10FG2 and LR. These scFvs were previously obtained by directed evolution against scorpion venom toxins and are able to neutralize different toxins and venoms of Mexican species. The yield obtained in P. pastoris was higher than that obtained in bacterial periplasm (E. coli), and most importantly, biochemical and functional properties were not modified. These results confirm that P. pastoris yeast can be a good expression system for the production of antibody fragments of a new recombinant antivenom.

Molecular engineering of a cryptic epitope in Spike RBD improves manufacturability and neutralizing breadth against SARS-CoV-2 variants

There is a continued need for sarbecovirus vaccines that can be manufactured and distributed in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Subunit protein vaccines are manufactured at large scales at low costs, have less stringent temperature requirements for distribution in LMICs, and several candidates have shown protection against SARS-CoV-2. We previously reported an engineered variant of the SARS-CoV-2 Spike protein receptor binding domain antigen (RBD-L452K-F490W; RBD-J) with enhanced manufacturability and immunogenicity compared to the ancestral RBD. Here, we report a second-generation engineered RBD antigen (RBD-J6) with two additional mutations to a hydrophobic cryptic epitope in the RBD core, S383D and L518D, that further improved expression titers and biophysical stability. RBD-J6 retained binding affinity to human convalescent sera and to all tested neutralizing antibodies except antibodies that target the class IV epitope on the RBD core. K18-hACE2 transgenic mice immunized with three doses of a Beta variant of RBD-J6 displayed on a virus-like particle (VLP) generated neutralizing antibodies (nAb) to nine SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern at similar levels as two doses of Comirnaty. The vaccinated mice were also protected from challenge with Alpha or Beta SARS-CoV-2. This engineered antigen could be useful for modular RBD-based subunit vaccines to enhance manufacturability and global access, or for further development of variant-specific or broadly acting booster vaccines.

Simultaneous enzyme production, Levan-type FOS synthesis and sugar by-products elimination using a recombinant Pichia pastoris strain expressing a levansucrase-endolevanase fusion enzyme

BACKGROUND

Although Levan-type fructooligosaccharides (L-FOS) have been shown to exhibit prebiotic properties, no efficient methods for their large-scale production have been proposed. One alternative relies on the simultaneous levan synthesis from sucrose, followed by endolevanase hydrolysis. For this purpose, several options have been described, particularly through the synthesis of the corresponding enzymes in recombinant Escherichia coli. Major drawbacks still consist in the requirement of GRAS microorganisms for enzyme production, but mainly, the elimination of glucose and fructose, the reaction by-products.

RESULTS

The expression of a fusion enzyme between Bacillus licheniformis endolevanase (LevB1) and B. subtilis levansucrase (SacB) in Pichia pastoris cultures, coupled with the simultaneous synthesis of L-FOS from sucrose and the elimination of the residual monosaccharides, in a single one-pot process was developed. The proof of concept at 250 mL flask-level, resulted in 8.62 g of monosaccharide-free L-FOS and 12.83 gDCW of biomass, after 3 successive sucrose additions (30 g in total), that is a 28.7% yield (w L-FOS/w sucrose) over a period of 288 h. At a 1.5 L bioreactor-level, growth considerably increased and, after 59 h and two sucrose additions, 72.9 g of monosaccharide-free L-FOS and 22.77 gDCW of biomass were obtained from a total of 160 g of sucrose fed, corresponding to a 45.5% yield (w L-FOS/w sucrose), 1.6 higher than the flask system. The L-FOS obtained at flask-level had a DP lower than 20 fructose units, while at bioreactor-level smaller oligosaccharides were obtained, with a DP lower than 10, as a consequence of the lower endolevanase activity in the flask-level.

CONCLUSION

We demonstrate here in a novel system, that P. pastoris cultures can simultaneously be used as comprehensive system to produce the enzyme and the enzymatic L-FOS synthesis with growth sustained by sucrose by-products. This system may be now the center of an optimization strategy for an efficient production of glucose and fructose free L-FOS, to make them available for their application as prebiotics. Besides, P. pastoris biomass also constitutes an interesting source of unicellular protein.

Cofactor Engineering for Efficient Production of α-Farnesene by Rational Modification of NADPH and ATP Regeneration Pathway in Pichia pastoris

α-Farnesene, an acyclic volatile sesquiterpene, plays important roles in aircraft fuel, food flavoring, agriculture, pharmaceutical and chemical industries. Here, by re-creating the NADPH and ATP biosynthetic pathways in Pichia pastoris, we increased the production of α-farnesene. First, the native oxiPPP was recreated by overexpressing its essential enzymes or by inactivating glucose-6-phosphate isomerase (PGI). This revealed that the combined over-expression of ZWF1 and SOL3 increases α-farnesene production by improving NADPH supply, whereas inactivating PGI did not do so because it caused a reduction in cell growth. The next step was to introduce heterologous cPOS5 at various expression levels into P. pastoris. It was discovered that a low intensity expression of cPOS5 aided in the production of α-farnesene. Finally, ATP was increased by the overexpression of APRT and inactivation of GPD1. The resultant strain P. pastoris X33-38 produced 3.09 ± 0.37 g/L of α-farnesene in shake flask fermentation, which was 41.7% higher than that of the parent strain. These findings open a new avenue for the development of an industrial-strength α-farnesene producer by rationally modifying the NADPH and ATP regeneration pathways in P. pastoris.

Cannabinoid Biosynthesis Using Noncanonical Cannabinoid Synthases

We report enzymes from the berberine bridge enzyme (BBE) superfamily that catalyze the oxidative cyclization of the monoterpene moiety in cannabigerolic acid (CBGA) to form cannabielsoin (CBE). The enzymes are from a variety of organisms and are previously uncharacterized. Out of 232 homologues chosen from the enzyme superfamily, four orthologues were shown to accept CBGA as a substrate and catalyze the biosynthesis of CBE. The four enzymes discovered in this study were recombinantly expressed and purified in Pichia pastoris. These enzymes are the first report of heterologous expression of BBEs that did not originate from the Cannabis plant that catalyze the production of cannabinoids using CBGA as substrate. This study details a new avenue for discovering and producing natural and unnatural cannabinoids.

Comparing the Catalytic and Structural Characteristics of a 'Short' Unspecific Peroxygenase (UPO) Expressed in Pichia pastoris and Escherichia coli

Unspecific peroxygenases (UPOs) have emerged as valuable tools for the oxygenation of non-activated carbon atoms, as they exhibit high turnovers, good stability and depend only on hydrogen peroxide as the external oxidant for activity. However, the isolation of UPOs from their natural fungal sources remains a barrier to wider application. We have cloned the gene encoding an 'artificial' peroxygenase (artUPO), close in sequence to the 'short' UPO from Marasmius rotula (MroUPO), and expressed it in both the yeast Pichia pastoris and E. coli to compare the catalytic and structural characteristics of the enzymes produced in each system. Catalytic efficiency for the UPO substrate 5-nitro-1,3-benzodioxole (NBD) was largely the same for both enzymes, and the structures also revealed few differences apart from the expected glycosylation of the yeast enzyme. However, the glycosylated enzyme displayed greater stability, as determined by nano differential scanning fluorimetry (nano-DSF) measurements. Interestingly, while artUPO hydroxylated ethylbenzene derivatives to give the (R)-alcohols, also given by a variant of the 'long' UPO from Agrocybe aegerita (AaeUPO), it gave the opposite (S)-series of sulfoxide products from a range of sulfide substrates, broadening the scope for application of the enzymes. The structures of artUPO reveal substantial differences to that of AaeUPO, and provide a platform for investigating the distinctive activity of this and related'short' UPOs.

Expression of Trichinella spiralis serpin Tsp_01570 in Pichia pastoris: a first insight of its biomodulatory activity

Serpins represent one of the most diverse families of serine protease inhibitors. Despite their complexity, they are virtually found in all organisms and play an important role in homeostasis processes such as blood coagulation, inflammation, fibrinolysis, immune responses, chromatin condensation, tumor suppression, and apoptosis. There has recently been particular interest in studying serpin functions in infection and inflammation, especially since more serpins from parasites have been identified and characterized. Among helminths, Trichinella spiralis is one of the few parasites with an extremely strong ability to induce host immune suppression. Previous studies show that serpins are present in Trichinella and are expressed differentially at different parasite stages. More interesting, there is evidence of a recombinant serpin from Trichinella pseudospiralis that alters macrophage polarization in vitro. This finding could be relevant to comprehend the modulation process of the immune response. We expressed Tsp_01570, a putative serpin gene from Trichinella spiralis, in the eukaryotic system Pichia pastoris SMD1168H and evaluated its presence at different parasite stages, finding the serine protease inhibitor in the crude extract of adult worms. The effect of recombinant serpin on THP-1 cells was tested by quantification of IL-12p40, TNF-α, IL-4, and IL-10 cytokines released by ELISA. We also evaluated the expression of the M1 markers, CCR7 and CD86, and the M2 markers, CD163 and CD206, by immunofluorescence staining. This study represents the first insight in elucidating the importance of serpin Tsp_01570 as a potential molecular modulator.

Enhanced Co-culture System Using Escherichia coli and Pichia pastoris (Komagataella phaffii) for Improved Microbial Production of Valuable Plant Alkaloids

Advancements in synthetic biology have facilitated the microbial production of valuable plant metabolites. However, constructing complete biosynthetic pathways within a single host organism remains challenging. To solve this problem, modular co-culture systems involving host organisms with partial pathways have been developed. We focused on Escherichia coli, a general host for metabolite production, and Pichia pastoris (Komagataella phaffii), a novel synthetic biology host due to its high expression of biosynthetic enzymes. Previously, we reported the co-culture of E. coli cells, which produce reticuline (an important intermediate for various alkaloids) from glycerol, with P. pastoris cells, which produce the valuable alkaloid stylopine from reticuline. However, Pichia cells inhibited E. coli growth and reticuline production. Therefore, we aimed to improve this co-culture system. We investigated the pre-culture time before co-culture to enhance E. coli growth and reticuline production. Additionally, we examined the optimal concentration of Pichia cells inoculated for co-culture and methanol addition during co-culture for the continuous expression of biosynthetic enzymes in Pichia cells. We successfully established an improved co-culture system that exhibited an 80-fold increase in productivity compared to previous methods. This enhanced system holds great potential for the rapid and large-scale production of various valuable plant metabolites.

Thermostability modification of β-mannanase from Aspergillus niger via flexibility modification engineering

Introduction

β-Mannanases can hydrolyze mannans, which are widely available in nature. However, the optimum temperature of most β-mannanases is too low to be directly utilized in industry.

Methods

To further improve the thermostability of Anman (mannanase from Aspergillus niger CBS513.88), B-factor and Gibbs unfolding free energy change were used to modify the flexible of Anman, and then combined with multiple sequence alignment and consensus mutation to generate an excellent mutant. At last, we analyzed the intermolecular forces between Anman and the mutant by molecular dynamics simulation.

Results

The thermostability of combined mutant mut5 (E15C/S65P/A84P/A195P/T298P) was increased by 70% than the wild-type Amman at 70°C, and the melting temperature (Tm) and half-life (t1/2) values were increased by 2°C and 7.8-folds, respectively. Molecular dynamics simulation showed reduced flexibility and additional chemical bonds in the region near the mutation site.

Discussion

These results indicate that we obtained a Anman mutant that is more suitable for industrial application, and they also confirm that a combination of rational and semi-rational techniques is helpful for screening mutant sites.

Characterization of substrates and inhibitors of the human heterodimeric transporter 4F2hc-LAT1 using purified protein and the scintillation proximity radioligand binding assay

Amino acids have diverse and essential roles in many cellular functions such as in protein synthesis, metabolism and as precursors of different hormones. Translocation of amino acids and derivatives thereof across biological membranes is mediated by amino acid transporters. 4F2hc-LAT1 is a heterodimeric amino acid transporter that is composed of two subunits belonging to the SLC3 (4F2hc) and SLC7 (LAT1) solute carrier families. The ancillary protein 4F2hc is responsible for the correct trafficking and regulation of the transporter LAT1. Preclinical studies have identified 4F2hc-LAT1 as a valid anticancer target due to its importance in tumor progression. The scintillation proximity assay (SPA) is a valuable radioligand binding assay that allows the identification and characterization of ligands of membrane proteins. Here, we present a SPA ligand binding study using purified recombinant human 4F2hc-LAT1 protein and the radioligand [³H]L-leucine as tracer. Binding affinities of different 4F2hc-LAT1 substrates and inhibitors determined by SPA are comparable with previously reported K _m and IC ₅₀ values from 4F2hc-LAT1 cell-based uptake assays. In summary, the SPA is a valuable method for the identification and characterization of ligands of membrane transporters including inhibitors. In contrast to cell-based assays, where the potential interference with other proteins such as endogenous transporters persists, the SPA uses purified protein making target engagement and characterization of ligands highly reliable.

Medium optimization for enhanced production of recombinant lignin peroxidase in Pichia pastoris

OBJECTIVES

Different cultivation conditions and parameters were evaluated to improve the production and secretion of a recombinant Phanerochaete chrysosporium lipH8 gene in Komagataella phaffii (Pichia pastoris).

RESULTS

The recombinant lipH8 gene with its native secretion signal was successfully cloned and expressed in Komagataella phaffii (Pichia pastoris) under the control of the alcohol oxidase 1 promoter (P_AOX1). The results revealed that co-feeding with sorbitol and methanol increased rLiP secretion by 5.9-fold compared to the control conditions. The addition of 1 mM FeSO₄ increased LiP activity a further 6.0-fold during the induction phase. Moreover, the combination of several optimal conditions and parameters yielded an extracellular rLiP activity of 20.05 U l^-1, which is more than ten-fold higher relative to standard growth conditions (BMM10 medium, pH 6 and 30 °C).

CONCLUSION

Extracellular activity of a recombinant LiP expressed in P. pastoris increased more than ten-fold when co-feeding sorbitol and methanol as carbon sources, together with urea as nitrogen source, FeSO₄ supplementation, lower pH and lower cultivation temperature.

Purification of Recombinant Eukaryotic MAO A and MAO B Utilizing the Pichia pastoris Expression System

Procedures are described for the heterologous expression and purification of the mitochondrial-bound enzymes human and rat monoamine oxidases A and B and zebrafish MAO in the yeast Pichia pastoris. Enzyme expression is under control of a methanol oxidase promoter and similar procedures have been developed for the preparation of membrane particles and detergent solubilization of the functional enzymes. Similarities and differences are described in the procedures for purification of the respective enzymes using standard column chromatographic techniques to provide enzyme yields in the range of 100-300 mg from 1 L of cell culture.

Enhancement of HSA-pFSHβ production by disrupting YPS1 and supplementing N-acetyl-L-cysteine in Pichia pastoris

Introduction

Pichia pastoris is widely used for the production of recombinant proteins, but the low production efficiency hinders its wide application in biopharmaceuticals. Moreover, many biopharmaceutical-like proteins are accompanied by degradation during secretory expression in P. pastoris.

Objective

In this study, we used human serum albumin and porcine follicle-stimulating hormone β (HSA-pFSHβ) fusion protein as a model protein to investigate whether YPS1 and YPT7 gene disruption and N-acetyl-L-cysteine (NAC) supplementation have synergistic effects to inhibit the degradation of recombinant proteins.

Results and discussion

Our results showed that YPS1 gene disruption reduced the degradation of intact HSA-pFSHβ and increased the yield of intact protein in the culture medium and cells without affecting the integrity of the cell wall. Moreover, the beneficial effects of YPS1 gene disruption were associated with the upregulation of the MAPK signaling pathway and maintenance of redox homeostasis. YPS1 gene disruption and NAC supplementation had synergistic effects on HSA-pFSHβ production. In addition, disruption of vacuolar morphology by YPT7 gene disruption or NH₄Cl treatment affected the production of recombinant HSA-pFSHβ protein. Furthermore, YPT7 gene disruption inhibited the processing of signal peptide in high-level produced HSA-pFSHβ strain. In conclusion, our results demonstrated that YPS1 disruption could reduce the degradation of intact HSA-pFSHβ proteins, and synergistically increase the yield of intact HSA-pFSHβ with NAC supplementation. This study provided a valuable reference for reducing recombinant protein degradation and therefore improving the yield of recombinant proteins in P. pastoris.

Visualizing Reversible Cisternal Stacking in Budding Yeast Pichia pastoris

Cisternal stacking is reversible, initiated at the "cis" side of the Golgi, and gets undone at the "trans" side in a continuous cycle in tune with the cisternal maturation. TGN peeling is a hallmark of such reversible cisternal stacking, but its visualization is challenging. In wild-type cells, TGN peeling of Golgi stack happens at a lower frequency, but the event itself occurs very rapidly, making it difficult to detect by microscopy. However, we have documented that TGN peeling becomes frequent in mutants of factors that play a role in reversible cisternal stacking, such as the GRIP domain Golgin PpImh1, Arl3, or Arl1 GTPase. In the present context, we describe the quantitative live microscopic methodology to visualize the TGN peeling effect in Pichia pastoris.

A switchable secrete-and-capture system enables efficient selection of Pichia pastoris clones producing high yields of Fab fragments

Pichia pastoris (syn. Komagataella phaffii) represents a commonly used expression system in the biotech industry. High clonal variation of transformants, however, typically results in a broad range of specific productivities for secreted proteins. To isolate rare clones with exceedingly high product titers, an extensive number of clones need to be screened. In contrast to high-throughput screenings of P. pastoris clones in microtiter plates, secrete-and-capture methodologies have the potential to efficiently isolate high-producer clones among millions of cells through fluorescence-activated cell sorting (FACS). Here, we describe a novel approach for the non-covalent binding of fragment antigen-binding (Fab) proteins to the cell surface for the isolation of high-producing clones. Eight different single-chain variable fragment (scFv)-based capture matrices specific for the constant part of the Fabs were fused to the Saccharomyces cerevisiae alpha-agglutinin (SAG1) anchor protein for surface display in P. pastoris. By encoding the capture matrix on an episomal plasmid harboring inherently unstable autonomously replicating sequences (ARS), this secrete-and-capture system offers a switchable scFv display. Efficient plasmid clearance upon removal of selective pressure enabled the direct use of isolated clones for subsequent Fab production. Flow-sorted clones (n = 276) displaying high amounts of Fabs showed a significant increase in median Fab titers detected in the cell-free supernatant (CFS) compared to unsorted clones (n = 276) when cells were cultivated in microtiter plates (factor in the range of ∼21-49). Fab titers of clones exhibiting the highest product titer observed for each of the two approaches were increased by up to 8-fold for the sorted clone. Improved Fab yields of sorted cells vs. unsorted cells were confirmed in an upscaled shake flask cultivation of selected candidates (factor in the range of ∼2-3). Hence, the developed display-based selection method proved to be a valuable tool for efficient clone screening in the early stages of our bioprocess development.

Functional characterization of a grouper nklysin with antibacterial and antiviral activity

Natural killer lysin (Nklysin) is a small molecule antimicrobial peptide produced by natural killer cells and T lymphocytes and widely expressed in vertebrates. Homologues of Nklysin have been found in several fish, but only several of biological activity was identified. In this study, we characterized a Nklysin from grouper (Epinephelus coioides), and explored its expression pattern and biological function in bacterial infection. We also investigated the role of Nklysin in viral replication and maturation. The nklysin gene of grouper encodes a 169 amino acid, sharing 92.90% identity to H. septemfasciatus NKlysin protein, containing a saposin B domain and six well-conserved cysteine residues that necessary for antimicrobial activity by forming three intrachain disulfide bonds. Analysis of qRT-PCR revealed that nklysin gene widely expressed in all tested tissues with the higher expressions in spleen. After bacterial challenge, the nklysin gene expression significantly varied in different tissues. In addition, a large-scale of the recombinant Nklysin protein was secreted in Pichia pastoris strain GS115. The MIC assay showed that the Nklysin protein directly inhibited growth of several pathogens, including Proteus mirabilis, Bacillus subtilis, Salmonella typhi, Escherichia coli, Shigella sonnei and Streptococcus agalactiae. Further analysis showed the Nklysin protein over-expression might prevent viral genes transcriptions and replication in FHM cells. Our findings suggested that the Nklysin of grouper might be a potential agent for antibacterial and antiviral infection in the future.

Current advances of Pichia pastoris as cell factories for production of recombinant proteins

Pichia pastoris (syn. Komagataella spp.) has attracted extensive attention as an efficient platform for recombinant protein (RP) production. For obtaining a higher protein titer, many researchers have put lots of effort into different areas and made some progress. Here, we summarized the most recent advances of the last 5 years to get a better understanding of its future direction of development. The appearance of innovative genetic tools and methodologies like the CRISPR/Cas9 gene-editing system eases the manipulation of gene expression systems and greatly improves the efficiency of exploring gene functions. The integration of novel pathways in microorganisms has raised more ideas of metabolic engineering for enhancing RP production. In addition, some new opportunities for the manufacture of proteins have been created by the application of novel mathematical models coupled with high-throughput screening to have a better overview of bottlenecks in the biosynthetic process.

Recombinant Expression in Pichia pastoris System of Three Potent Kv1.3 Channel Blockers: Vm24, Anuroctoxin, and Ts6

The Kv1.3 channel has become a therapeutic target for the treatment of various diseases. Several Kv1.3 channel blockers have been characterized from scorpion venom; however, extensive studies require amounts of toxin that cannot be readily obtained directly from venoms. The Pichia pastoris expression system provides a cost-effective approach to overcoming the limitations of chemical synthesis and E. coli recombinant expression. In this work, we developed an efficient system for the production of three potent Kv1.3 channel blockers from different scorpion venoms: Vm24, AnTx, and Ts6. Using the Pichia system, these toxins could be obtained in sufficient quantities (Vm24 1.6 mg/L, AnTx 46 mg/L, and Ts6 7.5 mg/L) to characterize their biological activity. A comparison was made between the activity of tagged and untagged recombinant peptides. Tagged Vm24 and untagged AnTx are nearly equivalent to native toxins in blocking Kv1.3 (Kd = 4.4 pM and Kd = 0.72 nM, respectively), whereas untagged Ts6 exhibits a 53-fold increase in Kd (Kd = 29.1 nM) as compared to the native peptide. The approach described here provides a method that can be optimized for toxin production to develop more selective and effective Kv1.3 blockers with therapeutic potential.

High-level secretory production of leghemoglobin in Pichia pastoris through enhanced globin expression and heme biosynthesis

Soy leghemoglobin is a key food additive that imparts meaty flavor and color to meat analogs. Here, a Pichia pastoris strain capable of high-yield secretory production of functional leghemoglobin was developed through gene dosage optimization and heme pathway consolidation. First, multi-copy integration of LegH expression cassette was achieved via both post-transformational vector amplification and CRISPR/Cas9 mediated genome editing methods. A combination of inducible expression and constitutive expression resulted in the highest production of leghemoglobin. Then, heme biosynthetic pathway was engineered to address challenges in heme depletion and leghemoglobin secretion. Finally, the disruption of ku70 was complemented in engineered P. pastoris strain to enable high-density fermentation in a 10-L bioreactor. These engineering strategies increased the secretion of leghemoglobin by more than 83-fold, whose maximal leghemoglobin titer and heme binding ratio reached as high as 3.5 g/L and 93 %, respectively. This represents the highest secretory production of heme-containing proteins ever reported.

Heterologous expression of Ts8, a neurotoxin from Tityus serrulatus venom, evidences its antifungal activity

In this study we expressed the Ts8, a neurotoxin from Tityus serrulatus scorpion venom, in Pichia pastoris yeast. We evaluated the peptide expression in different conditions, such as pH, temperature, and addition of casamino acids supplement. Analyses of expressed products by mass spectrometry and Edman degradation showed that rTs8 has sites that allow its cleavage by yeast proteases released into the culture medium. The casamino acids addition was favourable for toxin expression, however, was not sufficient to minimize proteolytic degradation. Functional assays with recombinant toxin fragments and native toxins have demonstrated the release of cytokines such as TNF-α and IL-1β in some peptides tested. In addition, the toxins were shown to inhibit the Pichia pastoris growth in antifungal test and were not toxic to alveolar macrophages cells at the concentrations analyzed The electrophysiological screening, by voltage clamp technique, showed that the rTs8 fragment with the highest molecular weight inhibited the Kv1.3 channel, whereas the N-terminal fragment had no activity on the ion channels tested.

Mutation Hotspot for Changing the Substrate Specificity of β-N-Acetylhexosaminidase: A Library of GlcNAcases

β-N-Acetylhexosaminidase from Talaromyces flavus (TfHex; EC 3.2.1.52) is an exo-glycosidase with dual activity for cleaving N-acetylglucosamine (GlcNAc) and N-acetylgalactosamine (GalNAc) units from carbohydrates. By targeting a mutation hotspot of the active site residue Glu332, we prepared a library of ten mutant variants with their substrate specificity significantly shifted towards GlcNAcase activity. Suitable mutations were identified by in silico methods. We optimized a microtiter plate screening method in the yeast Pichia pastoris expression system, which is required for the correct folding of tetrameric fungal β-N-acetylhexosaminidases. While the wild-type TfHex is promiscuous with its GalNAcase/GlcNAcase activity ratio of 1.2, the best single mutant variant Glu332His featured an 8-fold increase in selectivity toward GlcNAc compared with the wild-type. Several prepared variants, in particular Glu332Thr TfHex, had significantly stronger transglycosylation capabilities than the wild-type, affording longer chitooligomers - they behaved like transglycosidases. This study demonstrates the potential of mutagenesis to alter the substrate specificity of glycosidases.

β-glucosidase production by recombinant Pichia pastoris strain Y1433 under optimal feed profiles of fed-batch cultivation

Pichia pastoris, a methylotrophic yeast, is known to be an efficient host for heterologous proteins production. In this study, a recombinant P. pastoris Y11430 was found better for β-glucosidase activity in comparison with a wild type P. pastoris Y11430 strain, and thereby, subjected to methanol intermittent feed profiling for β-glucosidase production. The results showed that at 72 h of cultivation time, the cultures with 16.67% and 33.33% methanol feeding with constant rate could produce the total dry cell weight of 52.23 and 118.55 g/L, respectively, while the total mutant β-glucosidase activities were 1001.59 and 3259.82 units, respectively. The methanol feeding profile was kept at 33% with three methanol feeding strategies such as constant feed rate, linear feed rate, and exponential feed rate which were used in fed-batch fermentation. At 60 h of cultivation, the highest total mutant β-glucosidase activity was 2971.85 units for exponential feed rate culture. On the other hand, total mutant β-glucosidase activity of the constant feed rate culture and linear feed rate culture were 1682.25 and 1975.43 units, respectively. The kinetic parameters of exponential feed rate culture were specific growth rate on glycerol 0.228/h, specific growth of methanol 0.061/h, maximum total dry cell weight 196.73 g, yield coefficient biomass per methanol ([Formula: see text]) 0.57 g_cell/g_MeOH, methanol consumption rate ([Formula: see text]) 5.76 g_MeOH/h, and enzyme productivity ([Formula: see text]) 75.96 units/h. In conclusion, higher cell mass and β- glucosidase activity were produced under exponential feed rate than constant and linear feed rates.

Characterization of the Aquaporin-9 Inhibitor RG100204 In Vitro and in db/db Mice

Aquaporin-9 (AQP9) is a facilitator of glycerol and other small neutral solute transmembrane diffusion. Identification of specific inhibitors for aquaporin family proteins has been difficult, due to high sequence similarity between the 13 human isoforms, and due to the limited channel surface areas that permit inhibitor binding. The few AQP9 inhibitor molecules described to date were not suitable for in vivo experiments. We now describe the characterization of a new small molecule AQP9 inhibitor, RG100204 in cell-based calcein-quenching assays, and by stopped-flow light-scattering recordings of AQP9 permeability in proteoliposomes. Moreover, we investigated the effects of RG100204 on glycerol metabolism in mice. In cell-based assays, RG100204 blocked AQP9 water permeability and glycerol permeability with similar, high potency (~5 × 10-8 M). AQP9 channel blocking by RG100204 was confirmed in proteoliposomes. After oral gavage of db/db mice with RG100204, a dose-dependent elevation of plasma glycerol was observed. A blood glucose-lowering effect was not statistically significant. These experiments establish RG100204 as a direct blocker of the AQP9 channel, and suggest its use as an experimental tool for in vivo experiments on AQP9 function.

Effects of recombinant anti-lipopolysaccharide factor expressed by Pichia pastoris on the growth performance, immune response and disease resistance of Litopenaeusvannamei

The codon-optimized anti-lipopolysaccharide factor (ALF) sequence was introduced into pPICZαA vector and transformed into Pichia pastoris GS115. The recombinant ALF yeast supernatant (rALF-mix) was freeze-dried and evaluated as a feed additive for Litopenaeus vannamei. It was found by antibacterial activity test in vitro that the rALF-mix had antibacterial activity under different pH and temperature conditions. The 0, 0.00375%, 0.0075%, 0.015%, 0.03% and 0.06% of rALF-mix were added respectively to make the six experimental diets. After a 10-week feeding trial with shrimps (2.36 ± 0.02 g), it was found that the weight gain rate (WGR) and protein efficiency ratio (PER) of shrimp in the groups with 0.0075%, 0.015% and 0.03% of dietary rALF-mix supplementation were significantly higher than those in the control group (P < 0.05). Dietary rALF-mix supplementation significantly increased the total haemocyte count, respiratory burst, phagocytic activity, total anti-oxidative capacity (T-AOC), phenol oxidase activity, nitric oxide synthase activity, lysozyme (LYZ) activity, serum antibacterial capacity in the hemolymph and the T-AOC, LYZ in the hepatopancreas of shrimps (P < 0.05). The malondialdehyde contents in hemolymph and hepatopancreas were significantly decreased (P < 0.05). Meanwhile, the expression levels of toll, immune deficiency, heat shock protein 70, crustin and lipopolysaccharide-β-glucan binding protein in the gill of shrimps were significantly increased (P < 0.05). After the challenge test, it was showed that dietary rALF-mix supplementation significantly improved the resistance of L. vannamei to Vibrio parahaemolyticus (P < 0.05). In conclusion, the rALF-mix can be used as a functional feed additive to improve the growth, immunity and disease resistance of shrimp. Based on the quadratic regression analysis for WGR, the optimal supplemental level of rALF-mix in diet for shrimp was estimated to be 0.02813%.

Trichinella britovi recombinant proteins produced in Pichia pastoris expression system for specific IgG antibody detection in the sera of mice and pigs infected with Trichinella spp

Trichinellosis, a disease caused by infection with Trichinella spp, poses an economic problem in the animal sector and a recurrent health problem for humans. Discovering the new diagnostic tests may be achieved by identification and production of species- and stage-specific recombinant proteins of Trichinella genus which are recognized by the host antibodies after infection. In this study the T. britovi proteins identified earlier in excretory-secretory (ES) products: CTRL, ES21 and HSP20, were cloned and produced using a eukaryotic Pichia pastoris system. Their immunodiagnostic properties were verified by measuring the abundance of specific IgG antibodies in sera from mice and pigs experimentally infected with T. britovi or T. spiralis. The rTbCTRL and the rTbES21 proteins were more effectively produced and stable than rTbHSP20. The most sensitive protein for serodiagnostic purposes occurred to be CTRL; anti-rTbCTRL IgG level increased at 41 days post infection (dpi) in pigs infected with T. britovi and 45 dpi for those infected with T. spiralis. The rTbES21 protein was the most specific for the T. britovi species, as no antibody titers were observed in pigs infected with T. spiralis. Following the multiple-antigen strategy, the combination of rTbCTRL + rTbES21 was applied in ELISA, but no significant difference in IgG level was detected in the tested conditions.

Applicability of the heterologous yeast promoters for recombinant protein production in Pichia pastoris

Promoter choice is an important step in recombinant protein production, which directly determines the expression manner as constitutive or inducible and the expression level of the recombinant protein. This study aims to investigate the applicability of heterologous yeast promoters (Kluyveromyces marxianus TPI, Hansenula polymorpha PMA, Candida tropicalis ICL, and Saccharomyces cerevisiae CUP) in Pichia pastoris. The regulation mode of the CtICL and ScCUP promoters in P. pastoris was found to be inducible and that of the KmTPI and HpPMA was constitutive. The carbon sources in which the promoters exhibited the highest activity were determined as glycerol for PMA and TPI, glucose for CUP, and ethanol for ICL. The DNA region showing the highest activity was determined as 1000 bp for all promoters by promoter deletion analysis. Results from the study demonstrate the potential of inducible and constitutive heterologous promoters allowing expression under different conditions in the P. pastoris expression system and offers alternatives to frequently used promoters. KEY POINTS: • Heterologous promoters exhibited similar expression pattern in P. pastoris with its native host. • HpPMA has the highest promoter activity among the heterologous promoters tested. • Reporter gene expression with ScCUP is responsive to elevating Cu²⁺in P. pastoris.

[Expression, purification and bioactivity analysis of a recombinant fusion protein rHSA-hFGF21 in Pichia pastoris]

Human fibroblast growth factor 21 (hFGF21) has become a candidate drug for regulating blood glucose and lipid metabolism. The poor stability and short half-life of hFGF21 resulted in low target tissue availability, which hampers its clinical application. In this study, the hFGF21 was fused with a recombinant human serum albumin (HSA), and the resulted fusion protein rHSA-hFGF21 was expressed in Pichia pastoris. After codon optimization, the recombinant gene fragment rHSA-hFGF21 was inserted into two different vectors (pPIC9k and pPICZαA) and transformed into three different strains (X33, GS115 and SMD1168), respectively. We investigated the rHSA-hFGF21 expression levels in three different strains and screened an engineered strain X33-pPIC9K-rHSA-hFGF21 with the highest expression level. To improve the production efficiency of rHSA-hFGF21, we optimized the shake flask fermentation conditions, such as the OD value, methanol concentration and induction time. After purification by hollow fiber membrane separation, Blue affinity chromatography and Q ion exchange chromatography, the purity of the rHSA-hFGF21 protein obtained was 98.18%. Compared to hFGF21, the biostabilities of rHSA-hFGF21, including their resistance to temperature and trypsinization were significantly enhanced, and its plasma half-life was extended by about 27.6 times. Moreover, the fusion protein rHSA-hFGF21 at medium and high concentration showed a better ability to promote glucose uptake after 24 h of stimulation in vitro. In vivo animal studies showed that rHSA-hFGF21 exhibited a better long-term hypoglycemic effect than hFGF21 in type 2 diabetic mice. Our results demonstrated a small-scale production of rHSA-hFGF21, which is important for large-scale production and clinical application in the future.

Engineering and fermenter production of fungi GLA in Pichia pastoris GS115 using oil waste

γ-Linolenic acid (GLA) is an essential n-6 polyunsaturated fatty acid (PUFA) that has received considerable attention in human and animal feed. GLA is used in many nutritional and medicinal applications, such as the treatment of cancer, inflammatory disorders, and diabetes. Currently, plant seed is the primary dietary source of GLA that is not enough to utilize on an industrial scale. To generate a sustainable novel source of GLA, the gene of delta-6 desaturase, one of the essential enzymes in the GLA production pathway, was isolated from Mucor rouxii DSM1194 and expressed in P. pastoris GS115 by pPICZC vector. The recombinant yeast expressed the GLA up to 19.2% (72 mg/g) of total fatty acids. GLA production of recombinant yeast was studied in a fermenter by oil waste for 5 days, and results detected 6.3 g/l lipid, and 103 mg/g GLA was produced in 72 h. The present study may provide an opportunity to develop an alternative host for manufacturing GLA on an industrial scale.

Isolation and evaluation of strong endogenous promoters for the heterologous expression of proteins in Pichia pastoris

BACKGROUND

The heterologous expression of biosynthetic pathway genes for pharmaceutical or fine chemical production usually requires to express more than one gene in the host cells. In eukaryotes, the pathway flux is typically balanced by controlling the transcript levels of the genes involved. It is difficult to balance the stoichiometric fine-tuning of the reaction steps of the pathway by acting on one or two promoters. Furthermore, the promoter used should not be identical to avoid loss of inserted genes by recombination or dilute its transcription factors.

RESULTS

Based on RNA-seq data, 18 candidate genes with the highest transcription levels at three carbon sources (glucose, glycerol and methanol) were selected and their promoter regions were isolated from GS115 genome. The performance of these promoters on the level of protein production was evaluated using LacZ and EGFP genes as the reporters, respectively. These isolated promoters all exhibited activity to express LacZ gene. Using LacZ as a reporter, of the 18 promoter candidates, 9 promoters showed higher expression levels for the reporter compare to pGAP, a strong promoter widely used for constitutive expression of heterologous proteins in Pichia pastoris. These promoters with high expression levels were further employed to evaluate secreted expression using EGFP as a reporter. 6 promoters exhibited stronger protein expression compare to pGAP. Interestingly, the protein expression driven by pFDH1 was slightly higher than that of commonly used pAOX1 at methanol, and methanol-induced expression of pFDH1 was not repressed by glycerol.

CONCLUSION

The various promoters identified in this study could be used for heterologous expression of biosynthetic pathway genes for pharmaceutical or fine chemical production. the methanol-induced pFDH1 that is not repressed by glycerol is an attractive alternative to pAOX1 and may provide a novel way to produce heterologous proteins in Pichia pastoris.

Fusing an exonuclease with Cas9 enhances homologous recombination in Pichia pastoris

BACKGROUND

The methylotrophic yeast Pichia pastoris is considered as an ideal host for the production of recombinant proteins and chemicals. However, low homologous recombination (HR) efficiency hinders its precise and extensive genetic manipulation. To enhance the homology-directed repair over non-homologous end joining (NHEJ), we expressed five exonucleases that were fused with the Cas9 for enhancing end resection of double strand breaks (DSBs) of DNA cuts.

RESULTS

The endogenous exonuclease Mre11 and Exo1 showed the highest positive rates in seamless deletion of FAA1, and fusing the MRE11 to the C-terminal of CAS9 had the highest positive rate and relatively high number of clones. We observed that expression of CAS9-MRE11 significantly improved positive rates when simultaneously seamless deletion of double genes (from 76.7 to 86.7%) and three genes (from 10.8 to 16.7%) when overexpressing RAD52. Furthermore, MRE11 overexpression significantly improved the genomic integration of multi-fragments with higher positive rate and clone number.

CONCLUSIONS

Fusion expression of the endogenous exonuclease Mre11 with Cas9 enhances homologous recombination efficiency in P. pastoris. The strategy described here should facilitate the metabolic engineering of P. pastoris toward high-level production of value-added compounds.

Steric accessibility of the N-terminus improves the titer and quality of recombinant proteins secreted from Komagataella phaffii

BACKGROUND

Komagataella phaffii is a commonly used alternative host for manufacturing therapeutic proteins, in part because of its ability to secrete recombinant proteins into the extracellular space. Incorrect processing of secreted proteins by cells can, however, cause non-functional product-related variants, which are expensive to remove in purification and lower overall process yields. The secretion signal peptide, attached to the N-terminus of the recombinant protein, is a major determinant of the quality of the protein sequence and yield. In K. phaffii, the signal peptide from the Saccharomyces cerevisiae alpha mating factor often yields the highest secreted titer of recombinant proteins, but the quality of secreted protein can vary highly.

RESULTS

We determined that an aggregated product-related variant of the SARS-CoV-2 receptor binding domain is caused by N-terminal extension from incomplete cleavage of the signal peptide. We eliminated this variant and improved secreted protein titer up to 76% by extension of the N-terminus with a short, functional peptide moiety or with the EAEA residues from the native signal peptide. We then applied this strategy to three other recombinant subunit vaccine antigens and observed consistent elimination of the same aggregated product-related variant. Finally, we demonstrated that this benefit in quality and secreted titer can be achieved with addition of a single amino acid to the N-terminus of the recombinant protein.

CONCLUSIONS

Our observations suggest that steric hindrance of proteases in the Golgi that cleave the signal peptide can cause unwanted N-terminal extension and related product variants. We demonstrated that this phenomenon occurs for multiple recombinant proteins, and can be addressed by minimal modification of the N-terminus to improve steric accessibility. This strategy may enable consistent secretion of a broad range of recombinant proteins with the highly productive alpha mating factor secretion signal peptide.

Constitutive and extracellular expression of pectin methylesterase from Pectobacterium chrysanthemi in Pichia pastoris

Pectin methylesterase (PME) which is widely used in the cosmetic, food and pharmaceutical industries catalyses the hydrolysis of the methyl ester of pectin to yield methanol and free carboxyl groups. This study was performed to produce active pectin methylesterase (PME) extracellularly from Pectobacterium chrysanthemi in Pichia pastoris. Firstly, pGKBα was constructed for the secretion of heterologous protein. After it was cloned in Escherichia coli cells and the sequence was affirmed, PME gene was inserted into pGKBα. So, pGKBα-PME carried the PME gene in correct position was cloned in E. coli cells. Then, P. pastoris X-33 cells were transformed with linearized pGKBα-PME and six transformants were cultivated for recombinant PME production. It was observed that one of them had a high-capacity secretion of active PME. The molecular mass of extracellular PME enzyme was found to be about 59 kDa. The PME enzyme from P. chrysanthemi was produced by P. pastoris for the first time in this study. This recombinant enzyme might be produced in a large scale and also purified from the culture medium. Then, the purified enzyme might be used for clarification and increasing yield of juice in food industrial applications.

Supplementary Information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s13205-022-03291-3.

Effect of N-glycosylation on secretion, stability, and biological activity of recombinant human interleukin-3 (hIL-3) in Pichia pastoris

Human interleukin-3 (hIL-3) is a clinically important cytokine used to treat hematological malignancies, bone marrow transplantation, cytopenias, and immunological disorders. The cloning of hIL-3 gene was previously reported by our group, where its expression was optimized under methanol-inducible AOX1 promoter having N-terminal α mating factor signal sequence from Saccharomyces cerevisiae. This study investigated the role of glycosylation pattern on its molecular stability, secretion efficiency, and biological activity using the mutagenesis approach. The two N-linked glycosylation positions at N15th (Asn15) and N70th (Asn70) were sequentially mutated to generate three recombinant hIL-3 variants, i.e., N15A, N70A, and N15/70A. Asparagine at these positions was replaced with non-polar alanine amino acid (Ala, A). The alteration of N-linked glycosylation sites was disadvantageous to its efficient secretion in Pichia pastoris, where a 52.32%, 36.48%, 71.41% lower production was observed in N15A, N70A, and N15/70A mutants, respectively, as compared to native control. The fully glycosylated native hIL-3 protein showed higher thermal stability over its deglycosylated counterparts. The biological activity of native, N15A, N70A, and N15/70A hIL-3 protein was evaluated, where N15/70A mutant showed slightly higher proliferation efficacy than other combinations.

Pushing and pulling proteins into the yeast secretory pathway enhances recombinant protein secretion

Yeasts and especially Pichia pastoris (syn Komagataella spp.) are popular microbial expression systems for the production of recombinant proteins. One of the key advantages of yeast host systems is their ability to secrete the recombinant protein into the culture media. However, secretion of some recombinant proteins is less efficient. These proteins include antibody fragments such as Fabs or scFvs. We have recently identified translocation of nascent Fab fragments from the cytosol into the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) as one major bottleneck. Conceptually, this bottleneck requires engineering to increase the flux of recombinant proteins at the translocation step by pushing on the cytosolic side and pulling on the ER side. This engineering strategy is well-known in the field of metabolic engineering. To apply the push-and-pull strategy to recombinant protein secretion, we chose to modulate the cytosolic and ER Hsp70 cycles, which have a key impact on the translocation process. After identifying the relevant candidate factors of the Hsp70 cycles, we combined the push-and-pull factors in a single strain and achieved synergistic effects for antibody fragment secretion. With this concept we were able to successfully engineer strains and improve protein secretion up to 5-fold for different model protein classes. Overall, titers of more than 1.3 g/L Fab and scFv were reached in bioreactor cultivations.