Disrupting the methionine biosynthetic pathway in Candida guilliermondii: characterization of the MET2 gene as counter-selectable marker.

Candida guilliermondii (teleomorph Meyerozyma guilliermondii) is an ascomycetous species belonging to the fungal CTG clade. This yeast remains actively studied as a result of its moderate clinical importance and most of all for its potential uses in biotechnology. The aim of the present study was to establish a convenient transformation system for C. guilliermondii by developing both a methionine auxotroph recipient strain and a functional MET gene as selection marker. We first disrupted the MET2 and MET15 genes encoding homoserine-O-acetyltransferase and O-acetylserine O-acetylhomoserine sulphydrylase, respectively. The met2 mutant was shown to be a methionine auxotroph in contrast to met15 which was not. Interestingly, met2 and met15 mutants formed brown colonies when cultured on lead-containing medium, contrary to the wild-type strain, which develop as white colonies on this medium. The MET2 wild-type allele was successfully used to transfer a yellow fluorescent protein (YFP) gene-expressing vector into the met2 recipient strain. In addition, we showed that the loss of the MET2-containing YFP-expressing plasmid can be easily observed on lead-containing medium. The MET2 wild-type allele, flanked by two short repeated sequences, was then used to disrupt the LYS2 gene (encoding the α-aminoadipate reductase) in the C. guilliermondii met2 recipient strain. The resulting lys2 mutants displayed, as expected, auxotrophy for lysine. Unfortunately, all our attempts to pop-out the MET2 marker (following the recombination of the bordering repeat sequences) from a target lys2 locus were unsuccessful using white/brown colony colour screening. Nevertheless, this MET2 transformation/disruption system represents a new versatile genetic tool for C. guilliermondii.

A new series of vectors for constitutive, inducible or repressible gene expression in Candida guilliermondii.

The biotechnological potential of C. guilliermondii is now well established. This yeast species currently benefits from the availability of a convenient molecular toolbox including recipient strains, selectable markers and optimized transformation protocols. However, the number of expression systems for biotechnological applications in C. guilliermondii remains limited. We have therefore developed and characterized a new series of versatile controllable expression vectors for this yeast. While previous studies firmly demonstrated that knock-out systems represent efficient genetic strategies to interrupt yeast biochemical pathways at a specific step in C. guilliermondii, the set of expression plasmids described in this study will provide new powerful opportunities to boost homologous or heterologous biosynthetic routes by fine controlled over-expression approaches.