Systematic assessment of Pichia pastoris system for optimized β -galactosidase production

Pichia pastoris: A highly successful expression system for optimal synthesis of heterologous proteins

One of the most important branches of genetic engineering is the expression of recombinant proteins using biological expression systems. Nowadays, different expression systems are used for the production of recombinant proteins including bacteria, yeasts, molds, mammals, plants, and insects. Yeast expression systems such as Saccharomyces cerevisiae (S. cerevisiae) and Pichia pastoris (P. pastoris) are more popular. P. pastoris expression system is one of the most popular and standard tools for the production of recombinant protein in molecular biology. Overall, the benefits of protein production by P. pastoris system include appropriate folding (in the endoplasmic reticulum) and secretion (by Kex2 as signal peptidase) of recombinant proteins to the external environment of the cell. Moreover, in the P. pastoris expression system due to its limited production of endogenous secretory proteins, the purification of recombinant protein is easy. It is also considered a unique host for the expression of subunit vaccines which could significantly affect the growing market of medical biotechnology. Although P. pastoris expression systems are impressive and easy to use with well‐defined process protocols, some degree of process optimization is required to achieve maximum production of the target proteins. Methanol and sorbitol concentration, Mut forms, temperature and incubation time have to be adjusted to obtain optimal conditions, which might vary among different strains and externally expressed protein. Eventually, optimal conditions for the production of a recombinant protein in P. pastoris expression system differ according to the target protein.

Hac1p homologues from higher eukaryotes can improve the secretion of heterologous proteins in the yeast Pichia pastoris

OBJECTIVES

To systematically explore the effects of overexpressing Hac1p homologues from different sources on protein secretion in Pichia pastoris system.

RESULTS

Effects of Hac1p homologues encompassing P. pastoris (PpHac1p), S. cerevisiae (ScHac1p), Trichoderma reesei (TrHac1p) and Homo sapiens (HsXbp1), on secretion of three reporter proteins-β-galactosidase, β-mannanase and glucose oxidase were investigated. No individual Hac1p was optimal for all the enzymes. Rather, by testing a set of Hac1p, the secretory expression of each of the enzymes was improved. Notably, HsXbp1 overexpression improved β-mannanase production from 73 to 108.5 U β-mannanase mL^-1 while PpHac1p had no impact in shake flask culture. Moreover, HsXbp1 led to 41 and 67% increases in β-mannanase production in the single- and four-copy strain, respectively in 1-L laboratory fermenter. Transcription analysis of indicative chaperones suggested that HsXbp1 may cause a stronger and prolonged activation of the UPR target chaperone genes.

CONCLUSION

Mammalian HsXbp1 worked better than yeast Hac1p in terms of improving β-mannanase secretion in P. pastoris, and Hac1p screening may offer an effective strategy to engineer the secretion pathway of eukaryotic expression systems.