Functional and molecular characterization of novel Hansenula polymorpha genes, HpPMT5 and HpPMT6, encoding protein O-mannosyltransferases

O-mannosyltransferase MaPmt2 contributes to stress tolerance, cell wall integrity and virulence in Metarhizium acridum

As a conserved post-translational modification, O-mannosyltransferase families play important roles in many cellular processes. Three subfamilies (MaPmt1, MaPmt2 and MaPmt4) are grouped in Metarhizium acridum according to sequence homology. The functions of MaPmt1 and MaPmt4 have been characterized in M. acridum previously. In this study, the functions of another member belonging to the Pmt2 subfamily, MaPmt2, were identified through RNAi strategy. The three MaPmt2 knockdown mutants showed dramatically decreased expression of MaPmt2. Phenotypic analyses showed that the mutants exhibited decreased tolerances to wet-heat, UV-B irradiation and cell wall perturbing chemicals. Further studies revealed that the mutants presented thinner cell walls observed by transmission electron microscope combined with changed cell wall components. Besides, knockdown of MaPmt2 decelerated conidial germination and decreased conidial yield. Compared with the wild-type strain, the MaPmt2 knockdown mutants caused impaired virulence only by topical inoculation. Results illustrated that the decreased virulence by inoculation could result from the delayed conidial germination on locust wings, reduced appressorium formation, as well as reduced turgor pressure in MaPmt2 knockdown mutants.

Screening and Selection of Production Strains: Secretory Protein Expression and Analysis in Hansenula polymorpha

The thermotolerant methylotrophic yeast Hansenula polymorpha has been used as a host for the high-level production of recombinant proteins from industrial enzymes to therapeutic proteins. Despite favorable characteristics of the H. polymorpha-based platform for application to heterologous gene expression, several problems and limitations, such as over-glycosylation and proteolytic degradation, can be encountered in the development of production strains for secretory proteins. Here, H. polymorpha genetic tools and host strains, developed for authentic processing and modification of secretory recombinant proteins, are introduced with the analytical protocols.

Functional analysis of Mpk1-mediated cell wall integrity signaling pathway in the thermotolerant methylotrophic yeast Hansenula polymorpha

Understanding the characteristics and regulation mechanisms of cell wall integrity (CWI) in yeast is important not only for basic research but also in biotechnological applications. We found significantly different CWIs in two representative strains of the thermotolerant methylotrophic yeast Hansenula polymorpha. Compared to the A16 strain (classified as Ogataea polymorpha), the DL1-L strain (classified as Ogataea parapolymorpha) has a thinner cell wall that was found to be more fragile following long-term cultivation and more sensitive to zymolyase. To gain a deeper insight into this difference, we compared the characteristics of the Mpk1pmediated CWI signaling pathway in the two strains. While a DL1-L mutant deficient in Mpk1p (mpk1Δ) showed severe growth retardation at both normal and high growth temperatures and in the presence of cell-wall disrupting agents, the A16 mpk1Δ mutant displayed only a mild defect in cell growth. Sorbitol effect on rescuing growth retardation was different in the two mpk1Δ strains, which could partly be ascribed to subtle differences in the activation of HOG pathway. Among the cell wall disruptors evaluated, only caffeine clearly increased phosphorylation of Mpk1p in DL1-L, but not in A16. A transcriptome analysis of the DL1-L strain revealed that caffeine significantly increased the expression of a subset of cell-wall related genes in an Mpk1p-dependent manner, but not the expected Rlm1-target genes. Taken together, our data support an essential role for Mpk1p in maintaining CWI in H. polymorpha, although the requirement for Mpk1p and its regulation under diverse stress conditions varies depending on the strain background.

Hansenula polymorpha Hac1p Is Critical to Protein N-Glycosylation Activity Modulation, as Revealed by Functional and Transcriptomic Analyses

Aggregation of misfolded protein in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) induces a cellular protective response to ER stress, the unfolded protein response (UPR), which is mediated by a basic leucine zipper (bZIP) transcription factor, Hac1p/Xbp1. In this study, we identified and studied the molecular functions of a HAC1 homolog from the thermotolerant yeast Hansenula polymorpha (HpHAC1). We found that the HpHAC1 mRNA contains a nonconventional intron of 177 bp whose interaction with the 5' untranslated region is responsible for the translational inhibition of the HpHAC1 mRNA. The H. polymorpha hac1-null (Hphac1Δ) mutant strain grew slowly, even under normal growth conditions, and was less thermotolerant than the wild-type (WT) strain. The mutant strain was also more sensitive to cell wall-perturbing agents and to the UPR-inducing agents dithiothreitol (DTT) and tunicamycin (TM). Using comparative transcriptome analysis of the WT and Hphac1Δ strains treated with DTT and TM, we identified HpHAC1-dependent core UPR targets, which included genes involved in protein secretion and processing, particularly those required for N-linked protein glycosylation. Notably, different glycosylation and processing patterns of the vacuolar glycoprotein carboxypeptidase Y were observed in the WT and Hphac1Δ strains. Moreover, overexpression of active HpHac1p significantly increased the N-linked glycosylation efficiency and TM resistance. Collectively, our results suggest that the function of HpHac1p is important not only for UPR induction but also for efficient glycosylation in H. polymorpha.

Use of the cysteine-repressible HpMET3 promoter as a novel tool to regulate gene expression in Hansenula polymorpha

OBJECTIVES

The promoter of HpMET3, encoding an ATP sulfurylase, was evaluated for its potential as a repressible promoter to downregulate the expression of target genes in the thermotolerant, methylotrophic yeast Hansenula polymorpha.

RESULTS

The expression of lacZ under the control of the 0.6 kb HpMET3 promoter was efficiently downregulated by cysteine, but not by methionine or sulfate. The HpMET3 promoter was used to generate a conditional mutant of the HpPMT2 gene encoding an O-mannosyltransferase, which is involved in post-translational protein modification. The addition of 0.5 mM cysteine adversely affected the growth of the conditional HpMET3(p)-Hppmt2 mutant strain by downregulating transcription of HpPMT2 to approx. 40 % of the normal levels, indicating that the HpPMT2 gene is essential for cell viability. However, the HpMET3 promoter was neither induced nor repressed in the heterologous host Saccharomyces cerevisiae.

CONCLUSION

Our results reveal that the cysteine-repressible HpMET3 promoter is a useful tool that downregulates the expression of various genes in H. polymorpha.

Hansenula polymorpha Pmt4p Plays Critical Roles in O-Mannosylation of Surface Membrane Proteins and Participates in Heteromeric Complex Formation

O-mannosylation, the addition of mannose to serine and threonine residues of secretory proteins, is a highly conserved post-translational modification found in organisms ranging from bacteria to humans. Here, we report the functional and molecular characterization of the HpPMT4 gene encoding a protein O-mannosyltransferase in the thermotolerant methylotrophic yeast Hansenula polymorpha, an emerging host for the production of therapeutic recombinant proteins. Compared to the deletion of HpPMT1, deletion of another major PMT gene, HpPMT4, resulted in more increased sensitivity to the antibiotic hygromycin B, caffeine, and osmotic stresses, but did not affect the thermotolerance of H. polymorpha. Notably, the deletion of HpPMT4 generated severe defects in glycosylation of the surface sensor proteins HpWsc1p and HpMid2p, with marginal effects on secreted glycoproteins such as chitinase and HpYps1p lacking a GPI anchor. However, despite the severely impaired mannosylation of surface sensor proteins in the Hppmt4∆ mutant, the phosphorylation of HpMpk1p and HpHog1p still showed a high increase upon treatment with cell wall disturbing agents or high concentrations of salts. The conditional Hppmt1pmt4∆ double mutant strains displayed severely impaired growth, enlarged cell size, and aberrant cell separation, implying that the loss of HpPMT4 function might be lethal to cells in the absence of HpPmt1p. Moreover, the HpPmt4 protein was found to form not only a homomeric complex but also a heteromeric complex with either HpPmt1p or HpPmt2p. Altogether, our results support the function of HpPmt4p as a key player in O-mannosylation of cell surface proteins and its participation in the formation of heterodimers with other PMT members, besides homodimer formation, in H. polymorpha.

Functional characterization of extracellular chitinase encoded by the YlCTS1 gene in a dimorphic yeast Yarrowia lipolytica

The hemiascomycetes yeast Yarrowia lipolytica is a dimorphic yeast with alternating yeast and mycelia forms. Bioinformatic analysis revealed the presence of three putative chitinase genes, YlCTS1, YlCTS2, and YlCTS3, in the Y. lipolytica genome. Here, we demonstrated that the protein of YlCTS1 (YlCts1p), which contains an N-terminal secretion signal peptide, a long C-terminal Ser/Thr-rich domain, and a chitin-binding domain, is a homologue to Saccharomyces cerevisiae chitinase 1 (ScCts1p). Deletion of YlCTS1 remarkably reduced extracellular endochitinase activity in the culture supernatant of Y. lipolytica and enhanced cell aggregation, suggesting a role of YlCts1p in cell separation as ScCts1p does in S. cerevisiae. However, loss of YlCts1p function did not affect hyphal formation induced by fetal bovine serum addition. The mass of YlCts1p was dramatically decreased by jack bean α-mannosidase digestion but not by PNGase F treatment, indicating that YlCts1p is modified only by O-mannosylation without N-glycosylation. Moreover, the O-glycan profile of YlCts1p was identical to that of total cell wall mannoproteins, supporting the notion that YlCts1p can be used as a good model for studying O-glycosylation in this dimorphic yeast.