Petra Tiels

Genome sequence of the recombinant protein production host Pichia pastoris.

The methylotrophic yeast Pichia pastoris is widely used for the production of proteins and as a model organism for studying peroxisomal biogenesis and methanol assimilation. P. pastoris strains capable of human-type N-glycosylation are now available, which increases the utility of this organism for biopharmaceutical production. Despite its biotechnological importance, relatively few genetic tools or engineered strains have been generated for P. pastoris. To facilitate progress in these areas, we present the 9.43 Mbp genomic sequence of the GS115 strain of P. pastoris. We also provide manually curated annotation for its 5,313 protein-coding genes.

Open access to sequence: Browsing the Pichia pastoris genome

The first genome sequences of the important yeast protein production host Pichia pastoris have been released into the public domain this spring. In order to provide the scientific community easy and versatile access to the sequence, two web-sites have been installed as a resource for genomic sequence, gene and protein information for P. pastoris: A GBrowse based genome browser was set up at http://www.pichiagenome.org and a genome portal with gene annotation and browsing functionality at http://bioinformatics.psb.ugent.be/webtools/bogas. Both websites are offering information on gene annotation and function, regulation and structure.In addition, a WiKi based platform allows all users to create additional information on genes, proteins, physiology and other items of P. pastoris research, so that the Pichia community can benefit from exchange of knowledge, data and materials.

Engineering Yarrowia lipolytica to Produce Glycoproteins Homogeneously Modified with the Universal Man3GlcNAc2 N-Glycan Core

Yarrowia lipolytica is a dimorphic yeast that efficiently secretes various heterologous proteins and is classified as “generally recognized as safe.” Therefore, it is an attractive protein production host. However, yeasts modify glycoproteins with non-human high mannose-type N-glycans. These structures reduce the protein half-life in vivo and can be immunogenic in man. Here, we describe how we genetically engineered N-glycan biosynthesis in Yarrowia lipolytica so that it produces Man3GlcNAc2 structures on its glycoproteins. We obtained unprecedented levels of homogeneity of this glycanstructure. This is the ideal starting point for building human-like sugars. Disruption of the ALG3 gene resulted in modification of proteins mainly with Man5GlcNAc2 and GlcMan5GlcNAc2 glycans, and to a lesser extent with Glc2Man5GlcNAc2 glycans. To avoid underoccupancy of glycosylation sites, we concomitantly overexpressed ALG6. We also explored several approaches to remove the terminal glucose residues, which hamper further humanization of N-glycosylation; overexpression of the heterodimeric Apergillus niger glucosidase II proved to be the most effective approach. Finally, we overexpressed an α-1,2-mannosidase to obtain Man3GlcNAc2 structures, which are substrates for the synthesis of complex-type glycans. The final Yarrowia lipolytica strain produces proteins glycosylated with the trimannosyl core N-glycan (Man3GlcNAc2), which is the common core of all complex-type N-glycans. All these glycans can be constructed on the obtained trimannosyl N-glycan using either in vivo or in vitro modification with the appropriate glycosyltransferases. The results demonstrate the high potential of Yarrowia lipolytica to be developed as an efficient expression system for the production of glycoproteins with humanized glycans.

MET15 as a visual selection marker for Candida albicans.

To develop better molecular genetic tools for the diploid yeast Candida albicans, the suitability of the MET15 gene as a visual selection marker was studied. Both MET15 alleles of C. albicans CAI‐4 were isolated by functional complementation of a Saccharomyces cerevisiae strain lacking the MET15 gene. Growth of this complemented strain on Pb2+‐containing medium was associated with a colour shift of brown into white colonies. The MET15 alleles of C. albicans were located on chromosome 4 by pulsed‐field gel electrophoresis and Southern blotting. A met15‐deficient strain of C. albicans CAI‐4 was generated using the ura blaster technique. This strain showed a brown colony colour on Pb2+‐containing medium, which corresponded with the colony colour of a S. cerevisiae strain lacking the MET15 gene. Unexpectedly, the met15‐deficient strain of C. albicans still grew on methionine‐depleted medium. However, this growth was severely delayed. In addition, complementation of this strain with an integrative or replicative plasmid containing either of the MET15 alleles resulted in the formation of white transformants on Pb2+‐containing medium. These transformants grew very well on methionine‐depleted medium. Colony sectoring was obtained with the replicative plasmid and not with the integrative one. This study demonstrates that the MET15 gene of C. albicans is suitable as a visual marker and therefore can be used to identify transformants and study plasmid stability. GenBank Accession Nos for MET15 nucleotide sequences are AF188273, AF188274 and AF188275. Copyright