Secretion of glycosylated alpha-lactalbumin in yeast Pichia pastoris

The secretion of N-linked glycosylated alpha-lactalbumin was much higher in the expression system of yeast Pichia pastoris carrying goat alpha-lactalbumin cDNA than in mammalian milk. This is possibly because of the presence of N-linked glycosylation signal sequences, Asn(45)-Asp(46)-Ser(47) and Asn(74)-Ile(75)-Ser(76), in wild-type alpha-lactalbumin. Attempts to elucidate the mechanism of the higher secretion of glycosylated alpha-lactalbumin in P. pastoris were made. Mutant N45D that deleted the N-linked glycosylation signal sequence at position 45 predominantly secreted nonglycosylated protein. On the other hand, mutant D46N with another N-glycosylation signal site at position 46 only secreted N-linked glycosylated alpha-lactalbumin, i.e. not the nonglycosylated protein. The total secreted amount of mutant N45D was greatly enhanced, while the secreted amounts of the wild-type and mutant D46N were very low, suggesting that the increase in the number of glycosylation sites greatly reduced the secretion of alpha-lactalbumin. It seems likely that the glycosylated alpha-lactalbumin may be degraded by the quality control system.