Expanding the CRISPR/Cas9 toolkit for Pichia pastoris with efficient donor integration and alternative resistance markers

Komagataella phaffii (syn. Pichia pastoris) is one of the most commonly used host systems for recombinant protein expression. Achieving targeted genetic modifications had been hindered by low frequencies of homologous recombination (HR). Recently, a CRISPR/Cas9 genome editing system has been implemented for P. pastoris enabling gene knockouts based on indels (insertion, deletions) via non‐homologous end joining (NHEJ) at near 100% efficiency. However, specifically integrating homologous donor cassettes via HR for replacement studies had proven difficult resulting at most in ～20% correct integration using CRISPR/Cas9. Here, we demonstrate the CRISPR/Cas9 mediated integration of markerless donor cassettes at efficiencies approaching 100% using a ku70 deletion strain. The Ku70p is involved in NHEJ repair and lack of the protein appears to favor repair via HR near exclusively. While the absolute number of transformants in the Δku70 strain is reduced, virtually all surviving transformants showed correct integration. In the wildtype strain, markerless donor cassette integration was also improved up to 25‐fold by placing an autonomously replicating sequence (ARS) on the donor cassette. Alternative strategies for improving donor cassette integration using a Cas9 nickase variant or reducing off targeting associated toxicity using a high fidelity Cas9 variant were so far not successful in our hands in P. pastoris. Furthermore we provide Cas9/gRNA expression plasmids with a Geneticin resistance marker which proved to be versatile tools for marker recycling. The reported CRSIPR‐Cas9 tools can be applied for modifying existing production strains and also pave the way for markerless whole genome modification studies in P. pastoris.     

Shrimp (Litopenaeus vannamei) trypsinogen production in Pichia pastoris bioreactor cultures

Recently, we engineered a Pichia pastoris Mut⁺ strain to produce and secrete recombinant Litopenaeus vannamei trypsinogen. Despite the observed toxicity of the recombinant shrimp trypsinogen to the P. pastoris cell host, when high density cell cultures in shake flasks with alanine in the induction medium were used recombinant shrimp trypsinogen could be produced. To further improve the product yield, in this work, we evaluated L. vannamei trypsinogen production in P. pastoris using a bioreactor and two recombinant P. pastoris strains with different methanol utilization (Mut) phenotypes. The effect of pH and temperature during the induction step on the trypsinogen production was also evaluated. The results indicate that temperature, pH, and Mut phenotypes influence the production of the recombinant protein, with almost no observed effect on cell growth. All cultures with the Mut⁺ strain had significant operational difficulties, such as in lowering the induction temperature, maintaining dissolved oxygen (DO) above 20%, and maintaining the methanol concentration at a constant value, and showed a decrease in metabolic activity due to trypsinogen toxicity to the cell host. In the culture with the Mut^s strain, however, the temperature, methanol concentration, and DO could be more easily controlled, the temperature could be easily decreased, and the trypsinogen caused the lowest toxicity to the host cells. After 96 h of Mut^s strain induction (pH 6 and 25°C), about 250 mg/L recombinant trypsinogen was detected in the culture medium. © 2012 American Institute of Chemical Engineers Biotechnol. Prog., 2013     

过表达PDI对毕赤酵母分泌淀粉样蛋白的影响——以胱抑素为例

[目的] 本研究旨在结合酵母菌蛋白质二硫键异构酶（protein disulfide isomerase,PDI）与其底物蛋白鸡胱抑素C （chicken cystatin C,cC）在酵母中的共表达,理解PDI影响外源蛋白合成与表达的调控规律。运用转录组深度测序技术（RNA-Seq）筛选差异基因,调取并鉴定影响cC表达的关键基因,为解析外源蛋白高效表达机制,改造工程菌株提供理论支撑。[方法] 以巴斯德毕赤酵母GS115、GS115-cC为出发菌株,采用电转的方法将携带PDI编码基因的载体pPIC3.5K转入到GS115/GS115-cC菌株,使其在菌株中过表达,研究过表达PDI对cC表达的影响。采用RNA-Seq深度测序方法,研究重组毕赤酵母基因表达差异情况。并结合KEGG注释结果对数据进行分析,挑选差异显著表达基因进行验证,初步明确其在蛋白表达调控方面的功能。[结果] 本研究通过构建过表达PDI重组毕赤酵母菌株,使得外源蛋白cC的表达量显著增加。利用RNA-seq技术分析过表达PDI菌株与正常菌株的差异,最终筛选了373个差异表达基因,其中有122个差异基因注释到KEGG生物通路,包括12个基因注释到蛋白质转运和分解代谢途径,21个基因注释到蛋白质折叠分选和降解途径,以及24个基因参与蛋白质的翻译途径等。[结论] 在毕赤酵母中过表达PDI能显著增加外源蛋白cC的表达量。通过对过表达与正常表达PDI的毕赤酵母基因的表达谱分析,初步确定了其中一些转录情况变化显著的基因,明确了它们参与的细胞途径和信号通路,为改造具有高效率表达淀粉样蛋白的酵母菌株奠定基础。     

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.     

High-level secretion and purification of recombinant acetylcholinesterase from human cerebral tissue in P. pastoris and identification by chromogenic reaction

The gene encoding human cerebral tissue acetylcholinesterase (AChE) was cloned from an 18-week fetal cerebral tissue and expressed in Pichia pastoris. Twenty-two positive transformants were obtained by Mut⁺/Mut^s phenotypes screening in MD/MM medium and polymerase chain reaction amplification, and four recombinant P. pastoris strains that could secrete active AChE at high level were identified by simple and specific development reaction with indoxyl acetate as the chromogenic substrate. In shake-flask culture induced with methanol, the recombinant human AChE (rhAChE) content was about 76% of the total secreted proteins, and rhAChE activity in supernatant was 40 U/ml. The enzyme was purified through anion-exchange and affinity chromatography. Purity of the rhAChE was up to 96% after the simple purification procedure. The enzymatic activity reached 200 U/mg.     

The fluorescent protein iLOV as a reporter for screening of high-yield production of antimicrobial peptides in Pichia pastoris

The methylotrophic yeast Pichia pastoris is commonly used for the production of recombinant proteins at scale. The identification of an optimally overexpressing strain following transformation can be time and reagent consuming. Fluorescent reporters like GFP have been used to assist identification of superior producers, but their relatively big size, maturation requirements and narrow temperature range restrict their applications. Here, we introduce the use of iLOV, a flavin-based fluorescent protein, as a fluorescent marker to identify P. pastoris high-yielding strains easily and rapidly. The use of this fluorescent protein as a fusion partner is exemplified by the production of the antimicrobial peptide NI01, a difficult target to overexpress in its native form. iLOV fluorescence correlated well with protein expression level and copy number of the chromosomally integrated gene. An easy and simple medium-throughput plate-based screen directly following transformation is demonstrated for low complexity screening, while a high-throughput method using fluorescence-activated cell sorting (FACS) allowed for comprehensive library screening. Both codon optimization of the iLOV_NI01 fusion cassettes and different integration strategies into the P. pastoris genome were tested to produce and isolate a high-yielding strain. Checking the genetic stability, process reproducibility and following the purification of the active native peptide are eased by visualization of and efficient cleavage from the iLOV reporter. We show that this system can be used for expression and screening of several different antimicrobial peptides recombinantly produced in P. pastoris.     

Synthesis of Drosophila melanogaster acetylcholinesterase gene using yeast preferred codons and its expression in Pichia pastoris

To improve the expression level of recombinant Drosophila melanogaster AChE (R-DmAChE) in Pichia pastoris, the cDNA of DmAChE was first optimized and synthesized based on the preferred codon usage of P. pastoris. The synthesized AChE cDNA without glycosylphosphatidylinositol (GPI) signal peptide sequence was then ligated to the P. pastoris expression vector, generating the plasmid pPIC9K/DmAChE. The linearized plasmid was homologously integrated into the genome of P. pastoris GS115 via electrotransformation. Finally seven transformants with high expression level of R-DmAChE activity were obtained. The highest production of R-DmAChE in shake-flask culture after 5-day induction by methanol was 718.50 units/mL, which was about three times higher than our previous expression level of native DmAChE gene in P. pastoris. Thus, these new strains with the ability to secret R-DmAChE in the medium could be used for production of R-DmAChE to decrease the cost of the enzyme expense for rapid detection of organophosphate and carbamate insecticide residues.     

Comparison of two expression platforms in respect to protein yield and quality: Pichia pastoris versus Pichia angusta

The methylotrophic yeasts Pichia pastoris and Pichia angusta (Hansenula polymorpha) were used for the comparative heterologous production of two model mammalian proteins of pharmaceutical interest, the NK1-fragment (22 kDa) of human hepatocyte growth factor and the extracellular domain (28 kDa) of mouse tissue factor (MTF). Both recombinant proteins were engineered to contain an N-terminal Strep- (WSHPQFEK) and a C-terminal His₆-tag. In addition, both proteins contained the pre-pro-sequence of Saccharomyces cerevisiae mating factor alpha to allow secretion. Following vector construction, transformation and zeocin amplification, the best Pichia producers were identified in a screening procedure using Western blot and a Luminex xMAP™ based high-throughput method. Recombinant NK1-fragment and MTF were purified from culture supernatants of the best producers by affinity chromatography (Ni–nitrilotriacetic acid columns). Using P. pastoris as a host for the synthesis of NK1-fragment a protein yield of 5.7 mg/l was achieved. In comparable expression experiments P. angusta yielded 1.6 mg/l of NK1-fragment. NK1-fragment apparently was not glycosylated in either system. For the production of MTF, P. pastoris was also the superior host yielding 1.2 mg/l glycosylated recombinant protein whereas P. angusta was clearly less efficient (<0.2 mg/l MTF). For both expression systems no correlation between the amount of recombinant protein and the copy number of the chromosomally integrated heterologous genes was found. In P. pastoris strains less degradation of the two model recombinant proteins was observed. Altogether, this paper provides a structured protocol for rapidly identifying productive Pichia strains for the synthesis of full-length recombinant proteins.     

High expression of Trigonopsis variabilis -amino acid oxidase in Pichia pastoris

To explore a new approach of high expression of -amino acid oxidase (DAAO) in Pichia pastoris, a gene encoding DAAO from Trigonopsis variabilis (TvDAAO gene) deleted intron was prepared by PCR amplification and cloned into the intracellular expression vector pPIC3.5K. The expression plasmid pPIC3.5K-DAAO linearized by SalI was transformed into Pichia pastoris strain GS115 (his⁻mut⁺). By means of MM and MD plates and PCR, the recombinant P. pastoris strains (his⁺mut⁺) were obtained. Activity assay and SDS-PAGE demonstrated that DAAO was intracellularly expressed in P. pastoris with the induction of methanol. The recombinant strain PD27 with the highest expression of DAAO was screened through activity assay and its high-density fermentation was carried out in a 1-l fermentor. Activity assay and SDS-PAGE demonstrated that DAAO was intracellularly expressed in P. pastoris with the induction of methanol. The recombinant cells with high expression of DAAO were screened and the high-density fermentation was carried out in a 1-l fermentor. Interestingly, the DAAO expression level reached up to 473 U/g dry cell weight in fermentation yield. Finally, 1-hexanol was used to break recombinant cells and the specific activity of DAAO was 1.46 U/mg protein in crude extraction.     

Enhanced electrotransformation of the ethanologen Zymomonas mobilis ZM4 with plasmids

The Zymomonas mobilis ZM4 strain with excellent ethanol‐producing capabilities was the first strain of Z. mobilis, which was sequenced. This strain is resistant to transformation, and no previous study has shown a detailed protocol for electrotransfer of ZM4 with foreign DNA. In this work, many electrical and biological parameters were selected and evaluated in order to optimize the electrotransformation of ZM4. First, improved transformation efficiencies of 11 896, 99, 96 and 5989 transformants/μg DNA were separately achieved with shuttle plasmid pZB21‐mini (3082 bp), pZB21 (5930 bp), pZA22 (6994 bp) and broad‐host‐range vector pBBR1MCS‐2 (5144 bp) all prepared from Escherichia coli JM110. The crucial factors affecting the transformation efficiency included the source of the plasmid (the best strain was ZM4), origin and size of the plasmids, growth phase of the cells (the most ideal phase was early log phase with OD₆₀₀ of 0.3–0.4), the electric field strength (generally 11.75 kV/cm–13.25 kV/cm) and the recovery time (3–24 h). Further, based upon the optimal transformation protocol mentioned above for replicative plasmids in ZM4, (i) the electrotransformation by recombinant plasmid pBBR1MCS‐2‐Pgap‐FLP (6880 bp) was an immediate success with the transformation efficiency 10² transformants/μg DNA; (ii) the site‐specific integration efficiencies (expressed in terms of “per μg of DNA”) of 3–6 integrating transformants was obtained using the integrating plasmid pBR328‐ldhR‐cml‐ldhL (7447 bp). This study will assist genetic and biotechnological research of ZM4 and other Z. mobilis strains by providing information about suitable vectors and a more universal and reliable procedure for introducing DNA into this strain.     

Disruption of genes involved in CORVET complex leads to enhanced secretion of heterologous carboxylesterase only in protease deficient Pichia pastoris

The methylotrophic yeast Pichia pastoris (Komagataella spp.) is a popular microbial host for the production of recombinant proteins. Previous studies have shown that mis‐sorting to the vacuole can be a bottleneck during production of recombinant secretory proteins in yeast, however, no information was available for P. pastoris. In this work the authors have therefore generated vps (vacuolar protein sorting) mutant strains disrupted in genes involved in the CORVET (class C core vacuole/endosome tethering) complex at the early stages of endosomal sorting. Both Δvps8 and Δvps21 strains contained lower extracellular amounts of heterologous carboxylesterase (CES) compared to the control strain, which could be attributed to a high proteolytic activity present in the supernatants of CORVET engineered strains due to rerouting of vacuolar proteases. Serine proteases were identified to be responsible for this proteolytic degradation by liquid chromatography‐mass spectrometry and protease inhibitor assays. Deletion of the major cellular serine protease Prb1 in Δvps8 and Δvps21 strains did not only rescue the extracellular CES levels, but even outperformed the parental CES strain (56 and 80% higher yields, respectively). Further deletion of Ybr139W, another serine protease, did not show a further increase in secretion levels. Higher extracellular CES activity and low proteolytic activity were detected also in fed batch cultivation of Δvps21Δprb1 strains, thus confirming that modifying early steps in the vacuolar pathway has a positive impact on heterologous protein secretion.     

Expression and antigenic characterization of the epitope-G1 of the Bovine ephemeral fever virus glycoprotein in Pichia pastoris

The epitope-G₁ gene of Bovine ephemeral fever virus (BEFV) glycoprotein was synthesised by PCR and cloned into expression vector pPIC9K to construct recombinant plasmid pPIC9K-G₁. Then the pPIC9K-G₁ was linearized and transformed into Pichia pastoris GS115. The recombinant P. pastoris strains were selected by a G418 transformation screen and confirmed by PCR. After being induced with methanol, an expressed protein with 26 kDa molecular weight was obtained, which was much bigger than the predicted size (15.54 kDa). Deglycosylation analysis indicated the recombinant G₁ was glycosylated. Western blot and ELISA tests, as well as rabbit immunization and specificity experiments indicated that the target protein had both higher reaction activity and higher immunocompetence and specificity. The recombinant G₁ protein could be used as a coating antigen to develop an ELISA kit for bovine ephemeral fever diagnosis. Foundation item: National Dairy Foundation of China (2002BA518A04)     

High expression and rapid purification of recombinant scorpion anti-insect neurotoxin AaIT

Scorpion long-chain insect neurotoxins are potentially valuable as agricultural pest control agents. Unfortunately, natural insect neurotoxins are limited in quantity and difficult to obtain from scorpion venom. To determine if recombinant insect neurotoxin is active to insects, we expressed and purified an AaIT fusion protein in Escherichia coli and a recombinant AaIT protein in Pichia pastoris. To quantify AaIT expression in P. pichia colonies, we produced highly sensitive antiserum against AaIT in BALB/c mice. P. pastoris transformants that highly expressed AaIT were selected based on immunoassay with the AaIT antiserum. The P. pastoris recombinant AaIT was rapidly purified in a new and efficient two-step method that eliminated all contaminant proteins using ultracentrifugal filters with molecular weight cut-off 10 kDa and 3 kDa. With this new protocol 10 mg of purified recombinant AaIT was harvested from a 1-l P. pastoris culture. Bioactivity tests indicated that the P. pastoris recombinant AaIT was highly toxic to cockroach larvae, but the E. coli AaIT fusion protein was not toxic to cockroaches. The new expression, screening, and purification protocol described here was efficient for quickly producing high concentrations of pure, bioactive protein.     

High yield and purification of recombinant human apolipoprotein E3 in Pichia pastoris

Apolipoprotein E3 (ApoE3) is an important apolipoprotein in plasma and plays a critical role in lipid transport and cholesterol homeostasis. As the only natural source of this protein, human blood cannot provide large-scale ApoE3 for research and applications. Therefore, in our study, a Pichia pastoris expression system was first used to obtain a high-level expression of secreted, recombinant human ApoE3 (rhApoE3).The full-length sequence encoding ApoE3, gained by RT-PCR, was inserted into the pPICZαC vector and transformed into P. pastoris strain X33, and then the high expression transformants with zeocin resistance were obtained. The growth conditions of the transformant strains were optimized in 50 ml conical tubes including pH and inducing time. After induction with methanol, the expression level of rhApoE3 was 120 mg/L in 80 L fermentor. RhApoE3 was purified more than 94% purity using SP Sepharose ion exchange chromatography and source™ 30RPC. A preliminary biochemical characterization of purified rhApoE3 was performed by analyzing the ability of inhibiting PDGF-induced proliferation of rat coronary artery smooth muscle cells (SMCs), and the results demonstrated that the function of purified rhApoE3 was similar to natural human ApoE3.     

Restriction of plasmid-mediated transformation in Bacillus subtilis 168.

Summary When plasmids carrying leucine genes of Bacillus subtilis 168 were isolated from a restriction and modification deficient (r^-m^-) strain and used for transformation of a restricting strain B. subtilis 168 leu recE4, the number of transformants was greatly reduced. Transformation of a rec ⁺ strain (transformation by integration of the donor DNA into the chromosome) with the plasmids was not affected irrespective of whether the recipient carried the r⁺ or r^- phenotype. These results show that the plasmid-mediated transformation is subject to the host controlled restriction and suggest that r^-m^- strains should be used for construction of recombinant DNA molecules in B. subtilis 168.     

Quantitative physiology of Pichia pastoris during glucose‐limited high‐cell density fed‐batch cultivation for recombinant protein production

Pichia pastoris has become one of the major microorganisms for the production of proteins in recent years. This development was mainly driven by the readily available genetic tools and the ease of high‐cell density cultivations using methanol (or methanol/glycerol mixtures) as inducer and carbon source. To overcome the observed limitations of methanol use such as high heat development, cell lysis, and explosion hazard, we here revisited the possibility to produce proteins with P. pastoris using glucose as sole carbon source. Using a recombinant P. pastoris strain in glucose limited fed‐batch cultivations, very high‐cell densities were reached (more than 200 g_CDW L^?1) resulting in a recombinant protein titer of about 6.5 g L^?1. To investigate the impact of recombinant protein production and high‐cell density fermentation on the metabolism of P. pastoris, we used ¹³C‐tracer‐based metabolic flux analysis in batch and fed‐batch experiments. At a controlled growth rate of 0.12 h^?1 in fed‐batch experiments an increased TCA cycle flux of 1.1 mmol g^?1 h^?1 compared to 0.7 mmol g^?1 h^?1 for the recombinant and reference strains, respectively, suggest a limited but significant flux rerouting of carbon and energy resources. This change in flux is most likely causal to protein synthesis. In summary, the results highlight the potential of glucose as carbon and energy source, enabling high biomass concentrations and protein titers. The insights into the operation of metabolism during recombinant protein production might guide strain design and fermentation development. Biotechnol. Bioeng. 2010;107: 357–368. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

The Degree and Length of O-Glycosylation of Recombinant Proteins Produced in Pichia pastoris Depends on the Nature of the Protein and the Process Type

The methylotrophic yeast Pichia pastoris is known as an efficient host for the production of heterologous proteins. While N-linked protein glycosylation is well characterized in P. pastoris there is less knowledge of the patterns of O-glycosylation. O-glycans produced by P. pastoris consist of short linear mannose chains, which in the case of recombinant biopharmaceuticals can trigger an immune response in humans. This study aims to reveal the influence of different cultivation strategies on O-mannosylation profiles in P. pastoris. Sixteen different model proteins, produced by different P. pastoris strains, are analyzed for their O-glycosylation profile. Based on the obtained data, human serum albumin (HSA) is chosen to be produced in fast and slow growth fed batch fermentations by using common promoters, P_GAP and P_AOX1. After purification and protein digestion, glycopeptides are analyzed by LC/ESI-MS. In the samples expressed with P_GAP it is found that the degree of glycosylation is slightly higher when a slow growth rate is used, regardless of the efficiency of the producing strain. The highest glycosylation intensity is observed in HSA produced with P_AOX1. The results indicate that the O-glycosylation level is markedly higher when the protein is produced in a methanol-based expression system.