Heterologous protein expression in the methylotrophic yeast Pichia pastoris

Document Type

Article

Publication Title

Fems Microbiology Reviews

Department

Biological Sciences

ISSN

0168-6445

Volume

24

Issue

1

DOI

10.1111/j.1574-6976.2000.tb00532.x

First Page

45

Last Page

66

Publication Date

1-1-2000

Abstract

During the past 15 years, the methylotrophic yeast Pichia pastoris has developed into a highly successful system for the production of a variety of heterologous proteins. The increasing popularity of this particular expression system can be attributed to several factors, most importantly: (1) the simplicity of techniques needed for the molecular genetic manipulation of P. pastoris and their similarity to those of Saccharomyces cerevisiae, one of the most well-characterized experimental systems in modern biology; (2) the ability of P. pastoris to produce foreign proteins at high levels, either intracellularly or extracellularly; (3) the capability of performing many eukaryotic post-translational modifications, such as glycosylation, disulfide bond formation and proteolytic processing; and (4) the availability of the expression system as a commercially available kit. In this paper, we review the P. pastoris expression system: how it was developed, how it works, and what proteins have been produced. We also describe new promoters and auxotrophic marker/host strain combinations which extend the usefulness of the system.

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