de novo design and synthesis of Candida antarctica lipase B gene and α-factor leads to high-level expression in Pichia pastoris

PLoS One. 2013;8(1):e53939. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0053939. Epub 2013 Jan 10.

Abstract

Candida antarctica lipase B (CALB) is one of the most widely used and studied enzymes in the world. In order to achieve the high-level expression of CALB in Pichia, we optimized the codons of CALB gene and α-factor by using a de novo design and synthesis strategy. Through comparative analysis of a series of recombinants with different expression components, we found that the methanol-inducible expression recombinant carrying the codon-optimized α-factor and mature CALB gene (pPIC9KαM-CalBM) has the highest lipase production capacity. After fermentation parameters optimization, the lipase activity and protein content of the recombinant pPIC9KαM-CalBM reached 6,100 U/mL and 3.0 g/L, respectively, in a 5-L fermentor. We believe this strategy could be of special interest due to its capacity to improve the expression level of target gene, and the Pichia transformants carrying the codon-optimized gene had great potential for the industrial-scale production of CALB lipase.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Amino Acid Sequence
  • Base Sequence
  • Candida / enzymology*
  • Candida / genetics
  • Codon / genetics
  • Fermentation
  • Fungal Proteins* / biosynthesis
  • Fungal Proteins* / genetics
  • Gene Expression Regulation, Fungal
  • Lipase* / biosynthesis
  • Lipase* / genetics
  • Mating Factor
  • Methanol / pharmacology
  • Molecular Sequence Data
  • Peptides / genetics*
  • Pichia / enzymology*
  • Pichia / genetics

Substances

  • Codon
  • Fungal Proteins
  • Peptides
  • Mating Factor
  • Lipase
  • lipase B, Candida antarctica
  • Methanol

Grants and funding

This work was financially supported by Human Recourse Foundation of Wuhan Polytechnic University and the Key Project of Chinese Ministry of Education (No. 212118). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.