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The methylotrophic yeast, Pichia pastoris, is the most successful and favored microbial eukaryotic expression system for the production of recombinant proteins for biopharmaceutical or industrial purposes. P. pastoris has the ability to produce foreign proteins at high levels extracellularly, and since it secretes few endogenous proteins, this ability eliminates the need for expensive purification costs. It also combines the ease of genetic manipulation with rapid growth to high cell densities and provides complex posttranslational modifications. The most commonly utilized secretion signal leader in P. pastoris is the MATα prepro signal leader, originally found in S. cerevisiae. However, because some proteins cannot be secreted efficiently by P. pastoris, strategies to enhance secretion efficiency have involved the modification of the MATα prepro secretion signal leader. The study focuses on using site-directed mutagenesis of specific sets of amino acids of MATα prepro secretion leader to evaluate the correlation between secondary structure and secretion level. MATα pro-HRP mutants were created, in order to analyze the export of heterologous proteins in P. pastoris. In addition, structural analysis through circular dichroism was performed on mutant MATα pro-peptides to evaluate differences in secondary structure as a result of the mutagenesis. Mutants, pSC6 (Δ57-65) and pSC7 (Δ66-70) did not generate the same HRP secretion level as Δ57-70. In addition, a new proposed model of MATα pro-peptide signal leader was created. This new model suggests that the N and C terminus of MATα pro-peptide need to be presented correctly for proper interaction with secretion machinery and for efficient protein secretion. With these analyses, optimization of secretion systems can be achieved to impact the fields of science, industry, healthcare, and economics worldwide.

The methylotrophic yeast, Pichia past oris, is one of the most respected and widely used systems today. The ability of this yeast to produce large masses of protein and metabolize methanol as a sole source of carbon and energy is attributed to the highly induceable Alcohol Oxidase I promoter (AOXI). Despite of the disperse popularity and use of this promoter over the last 15 years, little is known about the transcription controls at a molecular level. A 5'>3' deletion analysis of the AOXI promoter was perrormed to gain understanding of the promoter's regulation and provided insight to the approximate locations of the important regulatory regions. A total of 10 truncations were made unveiling two areas ofhigh activity located between positions, -257 to-235, and, -235 to -188. In addition, a 14-base pair internal deletion was made between positions, -215 to -201. This region was shown to be necessary for transcriptional activation by deletion analysis. Sufficiency studies suggested that this 14-base pair element could serve as an activator sequence in both glucose and methanol.

Pichia pastoris, a popular protein expression system, is limited in its ability to secrete heterologous proteins. The PMR1 gene, the disruption of which is known to improve the secretion of prochymosin, human prourokinase, and human tissue plasminogen activator in Saccharomyces cerevisiae, was cloned from P. pastoris. The pmr 1 mutant in S. cerevisiae also displayed a slow growth phenotype when grown on low Ca2+ medium. The putative P. pastoris PMR1 gene, encoding for a 924 amino acid P-type Ca2+ ATPase, was disrupted in P. pastoris and the secretion of horseradish peroxidase (HRP) and β-galactosidase (β-gal) analyzed. Secreted HRP activity was determined using 3,3',5,5' tetramethylbenzidine (TMB) colorimetric assay and western analysis. β-gal expression and secretion was determined by western analysis. Secretion in P. pastorius Δpmr1 for both heterologous proteins showed no appreciable difference compared to wild type, nor did P. pastoris Δpmr1 display the slow growth phenotype seen in S. cerevisiae Δpmr1 (Rudolph H. et al., 1989).

The methylotrophic yeast Pichia pastoris has been used extensively for expressing recombinant proteins because it combines the ease of genetic manipulation with rapid growth to high cell densities and provides complex posttranslational modifications. The most successful and commonly used secretion signal leader in Pichia pastoris has been the MAT α prepro secretion signal. However, limitations exist as some proteins cannot be secreted efficiently even with the MAT α prepro secretion signal. Some strategies to enhance secretion efficiency involved modifying the secretion signal leader. Based on the knob-socket model and Jpred3 ( a secondary structure predictor), eleven deletions of MAT α prepro secretion signal and one MAT α pre double pro-peptide mutant was engineered and assayed with either horseradish peroxidase (HRP), or Candida antarctica lipase B reporter protein to evaluate the correlation between secondary structure and secretion level. In addition, structural analysis through circular dichroism was completed for the wild type pro-peptide and a mutant pro-peptide to evaluate differences in secondary structure. Results suggest pro-peptide amino acids 75-78 play an important role in determining secretion level and a higher secretion level tends to associate with secondary structures that are less defined. With these analyses, optimization of secretion systems can be achieved to impact the fields of science, industry, healthcare, and economics worldwide.

In effort to understand and isolate genes that are associated with protein secretion, the Lin-Cereghino laboratory at University of the Pacific created mutant strains of Pichia pastoris using the restriction enzyme mediated integration method. The mutants exhibited an unusual ability to supersecrete beta-galactosidase, due to the effects of a randomly disrupted gene by pREMI-Z. To learn more about the novel effects of the gene disruption, nine beta-galactosidase supersecreters ( bgs ) have been characterized for their phenotypes such as growth rate, cell wall integrity, and ability to produce and secrete various types of recombinant proteins. The mutants showed various population doubling times, which ranged from 1.7 to 2.4 hours. Generally, the mutants with severely diminished growth rates had much lower secretion of the reporter proteins. The mutants also showed different levels of cell wall (osmotic) defect, indicated by moderate to severe leakage of alkaline phosphatase from the vacuole. It was revealed that the cell wall defect was not necessarily associated with increased protein secretion, which suggests that the cell wall may not be a limiting barrier for the secretion of most reporter proteins. The result of the reporter study suggests that the secretion phenotypes of bgs mutants were protein specific and likely to be dependent upon the structure of the secreted protein rather than the size.

京都大学 / 0048 / 新制・課程博士 / 博士(生命科学) / 甲第20591号 / 生博第379号 / 新制||生||50(附属図書館) / 京都大学大学院生命科学研究科統合生命科学専攻 / (主査)教授 佐藤 文彦, 教授 福澤 秀哉, 教授 片山 高嶺 / 学位規則第4条第1項該当 / Doctor of Philosophy in Life Sciences / Kyoto University / DFAM

Pichia pastoris is a methylotrophic yeast that has been used in both research and industrial settings for recombinant protein expression due to the ease of genetically modifying its genome, its ability to grow to large densities in inexpensive media, and its capability to perform posttranslational modifications. Multiple tools such as the cis -acting factors MATα secretion signal and MBP fusion partners, and trans-acting modifications such as the bgs mutants have increased heterologous protein secretion. Although these techniques have already been used, their effects on the protein secretory pathway have yet to be elucidated. In this study, fluorescence microscopy was used to compare the localization of proteins expressed with the mutated MATα with the deletion of amino acids 57-70 to the wild type MATα secretion signal. Additional fluorescence microscopy was completed to visualize the localization of MBP-EGFP and EGFP-MBP fusion proteins and their spatial relativity to organelle markers. EGFP-MBP was used to further distinguish the properties of multiple bgs mutants. Additionally, secreted lipase activity levels were evaluated in bgs13 strains expressing either the wild type or the mutated MAT&agr; signal peptide. The results indicated that regardless of their differences, the MATα secretion signals and bgs mutants transported their cargo proteins through similar pathways within the cells. The results of the MBP fusion proteins suggest that the arrangement of MBP significantly influences protein secretion and localization. Lastly, the bgs13 mutant with MATα secretion signals demonstrated that lipase activity increased additively when cis- and trans -acting mutations were combined. Ultimately, these results can provide better understanding of each modified factor and the protein sorting pathway, leading to potential techniques that optimize protein secretion in P. pastoris .

No description available.

Une alternative intéressante pour la capture du dioxyde de carbone réside dans l'utilisation de l'anhydrase carbonique pour produire du bicarbonate. Un des goulots d'étranglement du procédé se situe au niveau de la quantité élevée d'enzyme nécessaire. Pour résoudre ce problème, un système d'expression inductible d'anhydrase carbonique humaine de type II utilisant Pichia pastoris (P. pastoris) a été développé, ce qui permettrait éventuellement une production intégrée à moindre coût de l'enzyme. Les cinétiques de croissance et de production du nouveau système d'expression ont été caractérisées par le moyen de cultures en bioréacteur complètement automatisé. Deux constructions ont été sélectionnées et comparées dans cette étude. Une production de l'ordre du gramme d'enzyme par litre, purifiée selon deux étapes simples (clarification et concentration) a été obtenue. Le coût du milligramme de protéine obtenue est estimé à moins d'un dollar.