1
|
Niu T, Cui Y, Shan X, Qin S, Zhou X, Wang R, Chang A, Ma N, Jing J, He J. Comparative transcriptomic analysis-based identification of the regulation of foreign proteins with different stabilities expressed in Pichia pastoris. Front Microbiol 2022; 13:1074398. [PMID: 36620045 PMCID: PMC9814716 DOI: 10.3389/fmicb.2022.1074398] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/19/2022] [Accepted: 11/28/2022] [Indexed: 12/24/2022] Open
Abstract
Introduction The industrial yeast Pichia pastoris is widely used as a cell factory to produce proteins, chemicals and advanced biofuels. We have previously constructed P. pastoris strains that overexpress protein disulfide isomerase (PDI), which is a kind of molecular chaperone that can improve the expression of an exogenous protein when they are co-expressed. Chicken cystatin (cC) is a highly thermostable cysteine protease inhibitor and a homologous protein of human cystatin C (HCC). Wild-type cC and the two mutants, I66Q and ΔW (a truncated cC lacking the á-helix 2) represent proteins with different degrees of stability. Methods Wild-type cC, I66Q and ΔW were each overexpressed in P. pastoris without and with the coexpression of PDI and their extracellular levels were determined and compared. Transcriptomic profiling was performed to compare the changes in the main signaling pathways and cell components (other than endoplasmic reticulum quality control system represented by molecular chaperones) in P. pastoris in response to intracellular folding stress caused by the expression of exogenous proteins with different stabilities. Finally, hub genes hunting was also performed. Results and discussion The coexpression of PDI was able to increase the extracellular levels of both wild-type cC and the two mutants, indicating that overexpression of PDI could prevent the misfolding of unstable proteins or promote the degradation of the misfolded proteins to some extent. For P. pastoris cells that expressed the I66Q or ΔW mutant, GO (Gene Ontology) and KEGG (Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes) analyses of the common DEGs in these cells revealed a significant upregulation of the genes involved in protein processing, but a significant downregulation of the genes enriched in the Ribosome, TCA and Glycolysis/Gluconeogenesis pathways. Hub genes hunting indicated that the most downregulated ribosome protein, C4QXU7 in this case, might be an important target protein that could be manipulated to increase the expression of foreign proteins, especially proteins with a certain degree of instability. Conclusion These findings should shed new light on our understanding of the regulatory mechanism in yeast cells that responds to intracellular folding stress, providing valuable information for the development of a convenient platform that could improve the efficiency of heterologous protein expression in P. pastoris.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Tingting Niu
- School of Life Sciences, Liaoning University, Shenyang, China
| | - Yi Cui
- School of Life Sciences, Liaoning University, Shenyang, China
| | - Xu Shan
- School of Life Sciences, Liaoning University, Shenyang, China
| | - Shuzhen Qin
- School of Life Sciences, Liaoning University, Shenyang, China
| | - Xuejie Zhou
- School of Life Sciences, Liaoning University, Shenyang, China
| | - Rui Wang
- School of Life Sciences, Liaoning University, Shenyang, China
| | - Alan Chang
- College of Life and Environmental Sciences, Wenzhou University, Wenzhou, China
| | - Nan Ma
- China Academy of Transportation Sciences, Beijing, China,Nan Ma,
| | - Jingjing Jing
- Tumor Etiology and Screening Department of Cancer Institute and General Surgery, The First Hospital of China Medical University, Shenyang, China,Jingjing Jing,
| | - Jianwei He
- School of Life Sciences, Liaoning University, Shenyang, China,*Correspondence: Jianwei He,
| |
Collapse
|
2
|
Wang Y, Li X, Chen X, Siewers V. CRISPR/Cas9-mediated point mutations improve α-amylase secretion in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. FEMS Yeast Res 2022; 22:6626025. [PMID: 35776981 PMCID: PMC9290899 DOI: 10.1093/femsyr/foac033] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/17/2022] [Accepted: 06/28/2022] [Indexed: 11/12/2022] Open
Abstract
The rapid expansion of the application of pharmaceutical proteins and industrial enzymes requires robust microbial workhorses for high protein production. The budding yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae is an attractive cell factory due to its ability to perform eukaryotic post-translational modifications and to secrete proteins. Many strategies have been used to engineer yeast platform strains for higher protein secretion capacity. Herein, we investigated a line of strains that have previously been selected after UV random mutagenesis for improved α-amylase secretion. A total of 42 amino acid altering point mutations identified in this strain line were reintroduced into the parental strain AAC to study their individual effects on protein secretion. These point mutations included missense mutations (amino acid substitution), nonsense mutations (stop codon generation), and frameshift mutations. For comparison, single gene deletions for the corresponding target genes were also performed in this study. A total of 11 point mutations and seven gene deletions were found to effectively improve α-amylase secretion. These targets were involved in several bioprocesses, including cellular stresses, protein degradation, transportation, mRNA processing and export, DNA replication, and repair, which indicates that the improved protein secretion capacity in the evolved strains is the result of the interaction of multiple intracellular processes. Our findings will contribute to the construction of novel cell factories for recombinant protein secretion.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Yanyan Wang
- Department of Biology and Biological Engineering, Chalmers University of Technology, Kemivägen 10, SE-41296 Gothenburg, Sweden
| | - Xiaowei Li
- Department of Biology and Biological Engineering, Chalmers University of Technology, Kemivägen 10, SE-41296 Gothenburg, Sweden
| | - Xin Chen
- Department of Biology and Biological Engineering, Chalmers University of Technology, Kemivägen 10, SE-41296 Gothenburg, Sweden
- Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Biosustainability, Chalmers University of Technology, Kemivägen 10, SE-41296 Gothenburg, Sweden
| | - Verena Siewers
- Corresponding author. Department of Biology and Biological Engineering, Chalmers University of Technology, Kemivägen 10, SE-41296 Gothenburg, Sweden. Tel: +46 (0)317723853; E-mail:
| |
Collapse
|
3
|
Liao X, Li L, Jameel A, Xing XH, Zhang C. A versatile toolbox for CRISPR-based genome engineering in Pichia pastoris. Appl Microbiol Biotechnol 2021; 105:9211-9218. [PMID: 34773154 DOI: 10.1007/s00253-021-11688-y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/22/2021] [Revised: 10/26/2021] [Accepted: 11/07/2021] [Indexed: 10/19/2022]
Abstract
Pichia pastoris has gained much attention as a popular microbial cell factory for the production of recombinant proteins and high-value chemicals from laboratory to industrial scale. However, the lack of convenient and efficient genome engineering tools has impeded further applications of Pichia pastoris towards metabolic engineering and synthetic biology. Here, we report a CRISPR-based toolbox for gene editing and transcriptional regulation in P. pastoris. Based on the previous attempts in P. pastoris, we constructed a CRISPR/Cas9 system for gene editing using the RNA Pol-III-driven expression of sgRNA. The system was used to rapidly recycle the selectable marker with an eliminable episomal plasmid and achieved up to 100% knockout efficiency. Via dCas9 fused with transcriptional repressor (Mix1/RD1152) or activator (VPR), a flexible toolbox for regulation of gene expression was developed. The reporter gene eGFP driven by yeast pGAP or pCYC1 promoter showed strong inhibition (above 70%) and up to ~ 3.5-fold activation. To implement the combinatorial genetic engineering strategy, the CRISPR system contained a single Cas9-VPR protein, and engineered gRNA was introduced in P. pastoris for simultaneous gene activation, repression, and editing (CRISPR-ARE). We demonstrated that CRISPR-ARE was highly efficient for eGFP activation, mCherry repression, and ADE2 disruption, individually or in a combinatorial manner with a stable expression of multiplex sgRNAs. The simple and multifunctional toolkit demonstrated in this study will accelerate the application of P. pastoris in metabolic engineering and synthetic biology. KEY POINTS: • An eliminable CRISPR/Cas9 system yielded a highly efficient knockout of genes. • Simplified CRISPR/dCas9-based tools enabled transcriptional regulation of targeted genes. • CRISPR-ARE system achieved simultaneous gene activation, repression, and editing in P. pastoris.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Xihao Liao
- MOE Key Laboratory for Industrial Biocatalysis, Institute of Biochemical Engineering, Department of Chemical Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China.,Center for Synthetic and Systems Biology, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China
| | - Lu Li
- MOE Key Laboratory for Industrial Biocatalysis, Institute of Biochemical Engineering, Department of Chemical Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China.,Center for Synthetic and Systems Biology, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China
| | - Aysha Jameel
- MOE Key Laboratory for Industrial Biocatalysis, Institute of Biochemical Engineering, Department of Chemical Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China.,Center for Synthetic and Systems Biology, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China
| | - Xin-Hui Xing
- MOE Key Laboratory for Industrial Biocatalysis, Institute of Biochemical Engineering, Department of Chemical Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China.,Center for Synthetic and Systems Biology, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China.,National Technology Innovation Center of Synthetic Biology, Tianjin, China
| | - Chong Zhang
- MOE Key Laboratory for Industrial Biocatalysis, Institute of Biochemical Engineering, Department of Chemical Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China. .,Center for Synthetic and Systems Biology, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China. .,National Technology Innovation Center of Synthetic Biology, Tianjin, China.
| |
Collapse
|
4
|
Liao X, Lin W, Chen N, Li L, Huang D, Zhong B, Chen L, Liang S, Lin Y. Overexpression of the regulatory subunit of protein kinase A increases heterologous protein expression in Pichia pastoris. Biotechnol Lett 2020; 42:2685-2692. [DOI: 10.1007/s10529-020-02977-z] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/09/2020] [Accepted: 07/27/2020] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
|
5
|
Huang H, Liang Q, Wang Y, Chen J, Kang Z. High-level constitutive expression of leech hyaluronidase with combined strategies in recombinant Pichia pastoris. Appl Microbiol Biotechnol 2020; 104:1621-1632. [DOI: 10.1007/s00253-019-10282-7] [Citation(s) in RCA: 16] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/27/2019] [Revised: 11/19/2019] [Accepted: 11/26/2019] [Indexed: 02/06/2023]
|