Improving the amylolytic activity of Saccharomyces cerevisiae glucoamylase by the addition of a starch binding domain

Glucoamylase produced by amylolytic strains of Saccharomyces cerevisiae (var. diastaticus) lacks a starch binding domain that is present in homologous glucoamylases from Aspergillus niger and other filamentous fungi. The absence of the binding domain makes the enzyme inefficient against raw starch and hence unsuitable for most biotechnological applications. We have constructed a hybrid glucoamylase-encoding gene by in-frame fusion of the S. cerevisiae STA1 gene and DNA fragment that encodes the starch binding domain of A. niger glucoamylase. The hybrid enzyme resulting from expression of the chimeric gene in S. cerevisiae has substrate binding capability and hydrolyses insoluble starch, properties not present in the original yeast enzyme.