Effects of co-overexpression of secretion helper factors on the secretion of a HSA fusion protein (IL2-HSA) in pichia pastoris.

Pichia pastoris is generally considered as an expression host for heterologous proteins with the coding gene under control of the alcohol oxidase 1 (AOX1) promoter. The secretion of heterologous proteins in P. pastoris can be potentially affected by many factors. Based on our previous results, the secretion levels of human albumin (HSA) fusion protein IL2-HSA were only around 500 mg/L or less in fermentor cultures, which decreased more than 50% compared with that of HSA (>1 g/L). In this study, we selected five potential secretion helper factors, in which Ero1, Pdi1 and Kar2 were involved in protein folding and Sec1 and Sly1 were involved in vesicle trafficking. We evaluated the possible effects of individual overexpression of these secretion helper factors on the secretion of IL2-HSA in P. pastoris. Constitutive overexpression of the five selected secretion factors did not have an obvious negative effect on cell growth of the IL2-HSA secreting strain. Individual co-overexpression of Ero1, Kar2, Pdi1, Sec1 and Sly1 improved the secretion level of IL2-HSA to ~2.3-, 1.9-, 2.2-, 2.5- and 1.9-fold that in the control strain respectively in shake flasks. We evaluated the changes in mRNA and protein levels of the intracellular IL2-HSA, as well as the secretion helper factor genes in the co-overexpressing strains. Our results indicated that manipulating the expression level of ER resident protein Pdi1, Ero1, Kar2 and SM protein Sec1 and Sly1 could improve the secretion level of IL2-HSA fusion protein in P. pastoris, which provided new candidates for combinatorial engineering in future study. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Effect of biotin on transcription levels of key enzymes and glutamate efflux in glutamate fermentation by Corynebacterium glutamicum.

Biotin is an important factor affecting the performance of glutamate fermentation by biotin auxotrophic Corynebacterium glutamicum and glutamate is over-produced only when initial biotin content is controlled at suitable levels or initial biotin is excessive but with Tween 40 addition during fermentation. The transcription levels of key enzymes at pyruvate, isocitrate and α-ketoglutarate metabolic nodes, as well as transport protein (TP) of glutamate were investigated under the conditions of varied biotin contents and Tween 40 supplementation. When biotin was insufficient, the genes encoding key enzymes and TP were down-regulated in the early production phase, in particular, the transcription level of isocitrate dehydrogenase (ICDH) which was only 2% of that of control. Although the cells' morphology transformation and TP level were not affected, low transcription level of ICDH led to lower final glutamate concentration (64 g/L). When biotin was excessive, the transcription levels of key enzymes were at comparable levels as those of control with ICDH as an exception, which was only 3-22% of control level throughout production phase. In this case, little intracellular glutamate accumulation (1.5 mg/g DCW) and impermeable membrane resulted in non glutamate secretion into broth, even though the quantity of TP was more than 10-folds of control level. Addition of Tween 40 when biotin was excessive stimulated the expression of all key enzymes and TP, intracellular glutamate content was much higher (10-12 mg/g DCW), and final glutamate concentration reached control level (75-80 g/L). Hence, the membrane alteration and TP were indispensable in glutamate secretion. Biotin and Tween 40 influenced the expression level of ICDH and glutamate efflux, thereby influencing glutamate production.

Constitutive expression of a rhIL-2-HSA fusion protein in Pichia pastoris using glucose as carbon source.

A constitutive expression vector for rhIL-2-HSA fusion protein production in yeast Pichia pastoris was constructed. The coding gene was placed in frame with the Saccharomyces cerevisiae α-factor secretion signal sequence under the control of the GAP promoter. The recombinant plasmid pGAPZαA-rhIL-2-HSA was integrated into the genome of the P. pastoris GS115. The effect of different carbon sources on rhIL-2-HSA fusion protein expression was evaluated in shaking flask cultures. We found that recombinant P. pastoris grew well and efficiently secreted rhIL-2-HSA fusion protein into the medium when using glucose as carbon source. To achieve higher production, the influence of initial pH and culture temperature was also evaluated. Fed-batch fermentation strategy using glucose as carbon source for constitutive expression of rhIL-2-HSA fusion protein was investigated in 5-L bioreactor and the expression level of rhIL-2-HSA could reach about 250 mg/L after 60-h fermentation. The rhIL-2-HSA fusion protein produced by this constitutive expression system was purified and exhibited a specific bioactivity of 1.040 × 10(6) IU/mg in vitro. This study described constitutive expression of rhIL-2-HSA fusion protein by P. pastoris and development of a simple high-cell density fermentation strategy for biologically active rhIL-2-HSA fusion protein using glucose as sole carbon source.

Transcriptional engineering of Escherichia coli K4 for fructosylated chondroitin production.

The capsule polysaccharide (CPS) of Escherichia coli K4 (K4CPS) is identical to fructosylated chondroitin, which can be modified to chondroitin sulfate, a commercially valuable biopolymer commonly used in pharmaceutical applications. In this study, we homologously overexpressed the transcriptional regulator SlyA to enhance the expression of K4 capsule gene cluster and production of CPS. The iTRAQ quantificaton of proteomics revealed 77 up-regulated proteins and 143 down-regulated proteins in E. coli THslyA. Most enzymes of glycolysis and citrate cycle pathway were weakened, while proteins associated with K4CPS synthesis were up-regulated, showing a shift of carbon flux from cell growth to K4CPS production. Further, the production of K4CPS by the recombinant strain was 1 and 2.6 g/L in a shake flask and 7-L batch bioreactor, which was 1.85- and 1.53-fold higher than that of the wild-type strain, respectively. Thus, this study provides a viable strategy for improving the production of K4CPS through a transcriptional-level manipulation.

Absence of Yps7p, a putative glycosylphosphatidylinositol-linked aspartyl protease in Pichia pastoris, results in aberrant cell wall composition and increased osmotic stress resistance.

Recently, studies performed on Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Candida albicans have confirmed the importance of fungal glycosylphosphatidylinositol (GPI)-anchored aspartyl proteases (yapsins) for cell-wall integrity. Genome sequence annotation of Pichia pastoris also revealed seven putative GPI-anchored aspartyl protease genes. The five yapsin genes assigned as YPS1, YPS2, YPS3, YPS7 and MKC7 in P. pastoris were disrupted. Among these putative GPI-linked aspartyl proteases, disruption of PpYPS7 gene confers the Ppyps7Δ mutant cell increased resistance to cell wall perturbing reagents congo red, calcofluor white (CW) and sodium dodecyl sulfate. Quantitative analysis of cell wall components shows lower content of chitin and increased amounts of ß-1,3-glucan. Further staining of the cell with CW demonstrates that disruption of PpYPS7 gene causes a reduction of the chitin content in lateral cell wall. Consistently, transmission electron micrographs show that the inner layer of mutant cell wall, mainly composed of chitin and ß-1, 3-glucan, is much thicker than that in parental strain GS115. Additionally, Ppyps7Δ mutant also exhibits increased osmotic resistance compared with parental strain GS115. This could be due to the dramatically elevated intracellular glycerol level in Ppyps7Δ mutant. These results suggest that PpYPS7 is involved in cell wall integrity and response to osmotic stress.

Expression, purification and characterization of recombinant human interleukin-2-serum albumin (rhIL-2-HSA) fusion protein in Pichia pastoris.

Interleukin-2 (IL-2) plays important roles in variety of immune functions. Recombinant IL-2 has become an important therapeutic protein for therapy of melanoma and renal cell carcinoma. Previously, it was proved that the therapeutic efficacy of rIL-2 expressed in Saccharomyces cerevisiae was improved by prolonging its in vivo half-life through genetic fusion with albumin. In this study, a fusion protein composed of hIL-2 genetically fused to HSA was expressed as a secretory protein under AOX1 (alcohol oxidase 1) promoter in Pichia pastoris. An effective strategy was established to express rhIL-2-HSA fusion protein in 5L scale and the optimal purification procedure was investigated. The purity of rhIL-2-HSA in final product was about 95%. The purified rhIL-2-HSA fusion protein could be recognized by both anti-hIL-2 and anti-human serum albumin monoclonal antibody. Bioactivity analysis showed that the purified rhIL-2-HSA fusion protein displayed high level activity on proliferation in IL-2 dependent manner in CTLL2-cells. rhIL-2-HSA fusion protein also showed a extended half-life in plasma compared with IL-2 when tested in a BALB/c mouse model. This study provides an alternative strategy for large-scale production of bioactive rhIL-2-HSA fusion protein using P. pastoris as an expression host.

Effective and stable porcine interferon-alpha production by Pichia pastoris fed-batch cultivation with multi-variables clustering and analysis.

Efficient porcine interferon-alpha (pIFN-alpha) expression in high density recombinant Pichia pastoris cultivation was achieved in a 5 l bench-scaled bioreactor. The results indicated that a high and stable oxygen uptake rate (OUR) during induction phase was closely related with pIFN-alpha production efficiency. The multi-variables clustering and analysis results showed that the achievement of a high and stable OUR relied on a higher glycerol consumption rate during fed-batch culture phase and a moderate methanol level (around 10 g/l) during induction phase. In the high and stable OUR environments (200-300 mmol/l/h), the highest pIFN-alpha antiviral activity could reach a level of 6.7 x 10(6) IU/ml, which was more than 10-300-folds higher than those obtained at lower OUR (80-200 mmol/l/h) using the same bioreactor and those obtained in shaking flasks. Clustering and analysis of the specific growth and glycerol consumption rates data during culture phase could detect the ill fermentation state at early stage, potentially provided a simple and effective fault alarming/diagnosis method for the achievement of stable pIFN-alpha production.

On-line optimization of glutamate production based on balanced metabolic control by RQ.

In glutamate fermentations by Corynebacterium glutamicum, higher glutamate concentration could be achieved by constantly controlling dissolved oxygen concentration (DO) at a lower level; however, by-product lactate also severely accumulated. The results of analyzing activities changes of the two key enzymes, glutamate and lactate dehydrogenases involved with the fermentation, and the entire metabolic network flux analysis showed that the lactate overproduction was because the metabolic flux in TCA cycle was too low to balance the glucose glycolysis rate. As a result, the respiratory quotient (RQ) adaptive control based "balanced metabolic control" (BMC) strategy was proposed and used to regulate the TCA metabolic flux rate at an appropriate level to achieve the metabolic balance among glycolysis, glutamate synthesis, and TCA metabolic flux. Compared with the best results of various DO constant controls, the BMC strategy increased the maximal glutamate concentration by about 15% and almost completely repressed the lactate accumulation with competitively high glutamate productivity.

Dietary diacylglycerol prevents high-fat diet-induced lipid accumulation in rat liver and abdominal adipose tissue.

The inhibitory effects of 1,3-diacylglycerol (DAG) on diet-induced lipid accumulation in liver and abdominal adipose tissue of rats were investigated in the present study. Male Sprague-Dawley rats were given free access to diets containing 7 wt% TAG (low TAG), 20 wt% TAG (high TAG), or 20 wt% DAG (high DAG), respectively, for 8 wk. The body weight of rats in the 20% high-TAG group increased significantly, and the weights of their abdominal adipose tissue and liver also showed a significant increase compared with rats in the low-TAG group. However, the high-DAG diet resulted in both a significant reduction in body weight gain (with a decrease of 70.5%) and an increase in the ratio of abdominal fat to body weight (by 127%) compared with the high-TAG diet. As well, the liver TAG and serum TAG levels of the high-DAG group were significantly lower than those of the high-TAG group. These effects were associated with up-regulation of acyl-CoA carnitine acyltransferase (ACAT) and down-regulation of acyl-CoA DAG acyltransferase (DGAT) in the liver. However, no significant difference was observed in the activities of alanine aminotransferase and aspartate aminotransferase among the groups (P > 0.05). The present results indicate that dietary DAG reduced fat accumulation in viscera and body, and these effects may be involved with up-regulation of ACAT and down-regulation of DGAT in the liver.

A novel, repeated fed-batch, ethanol production system with extremely long term stability achieved by fully recycling fermented supernatants.

Using Saccharomyces cerevisiae, a novel, repeated fed-batch ethanol production system from corn flour by fully recycling fermented supernatants is demonstrated. With recovery of ethanol by evaporation coupled with consecutive removal of the insoluble and soluble inhibitory substances accumulated, either completely or partially by filtration, the concentrations of the soluble inhibitors in the system could be maintained at their equilibria. As a result, a sustained high concentration of ethanol (up to 15% v/v) and significant pollution control performance were obtained.

[The product identification study on the isolating process of strains produced trehalose].

In the isolating process of stains whose endocellular enzymes can produce trehalose on starch or maltooligosaccharides, we discovered the components of enzymatic reactant were complicated and it was difficult to purify them each other, however, we have to know quickly whether there was tehalose in the enzymatic reactant above. In order to make it clearly, thinner layer chromatography, high performance liquid chromatography-electrospray ionization mass spectrometry and 13C-nuclear magnetic resonance were adopted. The unknown oligosaccharide produced by Arthrobacter nicotinovorus D-97 was identified rapidly and this unknown oligosaccharide needn't be purified from the enzymatic reactant solely. The production on starch or maltooligosaccharides by endocellular enzymes of Arthrobacter nicotinovorus D-97 is trehalose. This research method in our paper can be applied in the isolating process of production trehalose and other functional glucobioses strains.

[Purification and characterization of glutamate dehydrogenase. from Corynebacterium glutamicum S9114].

Glutamate dehydrogenase (GDH) is a key enzyme in the biosynthesis of glutamate. The GDHs from Corynebacterium glutamicum S9114 the most commonly used strain in glutamate fermentation, were purified and their molecular structures and properties characterized. The coenzymes were also studied in the hope to increase glutamate production. Cells were harvested at mid-exponential phase by centrifugation and washed with Tris-HCl buffer containing DTT and EDTA (pH 7.5). The cells were then disrupted using a French pressure cell press and the supernatant was collected by centrifugation. The extract was concentrated by 70-fold using the AKTA-100 FPLC system employing a DEAE-cellulose ion exchange column, a hydrophobic interaction chromatography (HIC) and Sephadex G-200 gel filtration. The purified extracts contained NADPH-dependent GDH and NADH-dependent GDH. Both of the enzymes were highly specific for the coenzymes. The molecular masses of the NADPH-dependent GDH and its subunit were 188kD and 32kD respectively, suggesting the enzyme is a homo-hexamer. Our data reported for the first time the presence of NADH- dependent GDH in Corynebacterium glutamicum S9114, similar to other microorganisms containing both GDHs. The NADPH-dependent and NADH-dependent GDH in Corynebacterium glutamicum S9114 may participate in the assimilation and dissimilation of ammonia respectively. The absorptions of NADPH-dependent GDH was very weak at 280nm but very high at 215nm, suggesting a low phenylalanine and tyrosine content in the enzyme.

[Study on the production of trehalose by bacterium D-97 endocellular enzymes using HPLC/RI and HPLC/ESI-MS].

The mechanism in which trehalose is produced from dextrin or starch hydrolyzate by endocellular enzymes of bacterium D-97 can be elucidated high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) with differential refraction detection (RI) basically, including the effect of the different carbon sources on the endocellular trehalose-producing enzymes in bacterium D-97 and the possibility or ability of the endocellular enzymes to produce trehalose using maltooligosaccharides of different chain lengths. After purification of endocellular enzymes of bacterium D-97, two enzymes (called Enzyme A and Enzyme B) related to trehalose synthesis were found. The unknown oligosaccharides produced by Enzyme A were analyzed with the HPLC/RI and HPLC/ESI-MS (electrospray ionization mass spectrometry). The results showed the relative molecular masses of the unknown oligosaccharides were the same as those of the enzymatic reaction substances (maltotriose, maltotetraose and maltopentaose) respectively. In combining with other results of biological experiments, these unknown oligosaccharides had been identified basically. There was no reduction power in these unknown oligosaccharides and only one trehalose residue exited in the molecular chain of these unknown oligosaccharides.