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Applied and Environmental Microbiology, February 2004, p. 961-966, Vol. 70, No. 2
0099-2240/04/$08.00+0 DOI: 10.1128/AEM.70.2.961-966.2004
Copyright © 2004, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.
Tanja Heintel,
Yvonne Carius, Frank Breinig, and Manfred J. Schmitt*
Angewandte Molekularbiologie, Universität des Saarlandes, D-66041 Saarbrücken, Germany
Received 9 September 2003/ Accepted 30 October 2003
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While the vast majority of heterologous proteins has been expressed within the cytosol of the corresponding host, only a few proteins have been successfully secreted into the extracellular medium. In most eukaryotic proteins, the critical initial step in protein secretion is their co- and/or posttranslational translocation into the lumen of the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) followed by subsequent sorting into the Golgi network. Foreign protein import into the ER is usually achieved by fusing the protein of interest in frame to a homologous secretion signal sequence derived from a naturally secreted protein of the corresponding host, thus conferring secretion competence to the desired protein fusion (13, 23).
In yeast, the most widely used secretion signals are those derived from yeast invertase (Suc2p), acid phosphatase (Pho5p), inulinase (Inu1p),
-galactosidase (Mel1p), or pheromone
-factor or from the plasmid-driven killer toxin of Kluyveromyces lactis (6, 12, 16, 23). In addition to the results seen with leader sequences derived from naturally secreted host cell proteins, Heintel et al. recently showed that a viral secretion signal from the K28 killer virus is equally functional in baker's yeast and fission yeast, indicating that a preprotoxin (pptox)-based signal sequence might be a novel and unique tool for manipulating heterologous protein secretion in biotechnologically relevant yeast species (12). We now demonstrateto our knowledge for the first timethat a viral pptox leader sequence is indeed capable of ensuring efficient green fluorescent protein (GFP) secretion in four distantly related yeast species (C. glabrata, P. pastoris, S. cerevisiae, and S. pombe), indicating that this signal sequence might be of general importance for foreign protein secretion in yeast.
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cells [F- recA1 endA1 gyrA96 thi hsdR17 supE44 relA
(argF-lacZYA) U169
80(dlacZ
M15)
-] grown in Luria-Bertani medium were used as a host for the amplification and propagation of all constructed plasmids. Yeast cultures were grown at 30°C either on complex yeast extract-peptone-dextrose medium or on synthetic complete minimal medium containing 0.67% yeast nitrogen base (YNB) without amino acids supplemented with ammonium sulfate and the appropriate amino acid-base requirements of each strain (12, 17). As indicated and previously described (9), the culture medium for methanol-induced pptox and/or GFP expression in P. pastoris was either minimal dextrose medium [0.34% YNB, 1% (NH4)2SO4, 0.00004% biotin, 2% dextrose], buffered minimal glycerol medium [100 mM potassium phosphate (pH 6.0), 0.34% YNB, 1% (NH4)2SO4, 0.00004% biotin, 1% glycerol], minimal methanol medium [0.34% YNB, 1% (NH4)2SO4, 0.00004% biotin, 0.5% methanol], or minimal glycerol medium [0.34% YNB, (NH4)2SO4, 0.00004% biotin, 10% glycerol]. All other media have been previously described (12, 21). |
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TABLE 1. Yeast strains and plasmids used in this study
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, and 25 µF with a Gene Pulser II system (Bio-Rad, Munich, Germany). Plasmids used for P. pastoris transformation were linearized with SalI to favor integration into the chromosomal HIS4 locus. After growth on minimal dextrose plates at 30°C for 3 days, transformants were selected by plating onto minimal medium lacking histidine according to the protocol of the manufacturer (Invitrogen). |
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TABLE 2. PCR primers used in this studya
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Western blot analysis.
To estimate the amount of secreted proteins after transformation with the various pptox-based expression vectors, the appropriate yeast transformants were grown in synthetic minimal medium at 30°C for 2 days until cell densities of 5 x 108 cells ml-1 were reached (10, 21). Extracellular (secreted) proteins were concentrated from the cell-free culture supernatant by ethanol precipitation, and protein samples were electrophoretically separated in Tris-Tricine gels for sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE) according to the method of Schagger and von Jagow (24). After electrotransfer onto polyvinylidene difluoride membranes, blots were incubated with either a monoclonal anti-GFP antibody (Roche) (diluted 1/1,000) or a polyclonal antibody against the toxin's ß-subunit (21) followed by treatment with an alkaline phosphatase-coupled secondary anti-rabbit or anti-mouse immunoglobulin G antibody (Sigma) (diluted 1/3,000) and were finally developed in a nitroblue tetrazolium-BCIP (5-bromo-4-chloro-3-indolylphosphate) stock solution (18.75 mg of nitroblue tetrazolium chloride/ml and 9.4 mg of 5-bromo-4-chloro-3-indolylphosphate [toluidine salt]/ml in 67% [vol/vol] dimethyl sulfoxide).
Recombinant pptox and GFP expression.
To induce protein expression in P. pastoris, transformants were grown for 16 to 18 h in buffered minimal glycerol medium to an optical density at 600 nm of 2 to 6 and subsequently diluted in minimal methanol medium to an optical density at 600 nm of 1.0. Every 24 h, methanol (100% [vol/vol]) was added to a final concentration of 1% to maintain inducing conditions for protein expression from the AOX1 promoter. After a total incubation for 96 h, cells were removed; the secreted proteins present in the cell-free culture supernatant were detected by Western analysis as described above.
Fluorescence microscopy.
Exponentially growing cells of GFP-expressing yeast transformants were harvested, washed twice with phosphate-buffered saline buffer (pH 7.4), and examined using either a BX51 fluorescence microscope (Olympus) or a confocal laser scanning microscope (Bio-Rad) with standard GFP settings (excitation wavelength, 488 nm; emission filter, 515 to 550 nm).
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and ß subunits of the mature toxin (10.5 and 11.0 kDa, respectively) which are separated from each other by a potentially N-glycosylated
sequence (28). During passage through the yeast secretory pathway, signal peptidase cleavage after Gly36 removes the N-terminal leader peptide, the N-glycosylated
sequence is excised by the action of the late Golgi endopeptidase Kex2p, and the mature and biologically active protein is finally secreted as an
/ß heterodimeric toxin in which both subunits are covalently linked by a single disulfide bond (21) (Fig. 1A).
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FIG. 1. (A) Kex2p-mediated pptox processing to the /ß heterodimeric K28 virus toxin in yeast. Internal cleavage sites of the ER lumenal signal peptidase (SP) and of the late Golgi endopeptidase Kex2p are indicated. The three N-glycosylation sites within the pptox -sequence are indicated by circles. S, secretion signal at the pptox N terminus. (B) Schematic outlines of the constructed vectors that allow constitutive or regulated expression of K28 pptox and/or GFP in the yeasts S. cerevisiae, C. glabrata, P. pastoris, and S. pombe. In each vector, the pptox and/or GFP open reading frame is under the transcriptional control of the indicated promoter and transcription termination combinations; the origins of replication (ARS) and low- or high-copy numbers of the vectors (CEN and 2µm [2µ]) as well as marker genes for the selection of yeast transformants (HIS4, URA3, and LEU2) are indicated.
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As shown in Fig. 2, all tested yeast transformants expressed the viral pptox gene under the appropriate culture conditions and showed a clearly detectable killer phenotype with a toxin-sensitive tester strain. In addition, SDS-PAGE and Western analysis of cell-free culture supernatants further indicated that in each case the recombinantly expressed virus toxin was correctly processed to an
/ß heterodimeric protein whose electrophoretic mobility after SDS-PAGE and immunoblotting was identical to that of the homologous toxin expressed and secreted by S. cerevisiae (Fig. 3). Thus, the N-terminal signal sequence in K28 pptox functions equally effectively in all four yeast genera, indicating that it might have the potential for being used as a novel and unique signal sequence suitable for foreign protein secretion. Furthermore, this is the first time that a biologically active virus toxin has been successfully expressed and secreted in C. glabrata and P. pastoris, confirming more recent reports on the existence of Kex2p/Kex1p homologous processing machinery that is required for the in vivo processing and maturation of protein precursors (1, 2).
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FIG. 2. Constitutive or thiamine-methanol-regulated K28 pptox expression in S. pombe (upper left panel), S. cerevisiae (upper right panel), P. pastoris (lower left panel), and C. glabrata (lower right panel). Yeast transformants harboring the indicated K28 pptox expression plasmid were grown under induced and/or repressed culture conditions (in the absence [-] or presence [+] of thiamine and/or methanol), and K28 toxin production levels were determined on methylene blue agar plates (pH 4.7) against the sensitive S. cerevisiae strain 192.2d. Toxin activity levels in pptox-expressing P. pastoris transformants were determined by pipetting a 100-µl aliquot of a cell-free culture supernatant into a 10-mm-diameter well that had been cut into the agar. After the plates were incubated for 4 days at 20°C, a cell-free zone of growth inhibition around the pprox-expressing yeast strain and/or the well indicated toxin secretion and killer activity.
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FIG. 3. Western blot analysis of K28 toxin secretion in C. glabrata, P. pastoris, S. pombe, and S. cerevisiae after in vivo expression of K28 pptox. Cell-free culture supernatants (600 µl each) of the corresponding yeast transformants grown under pptox-inducing culture conditions were concentrated by ethanol precipitation, separated by SDS-PAGE under nonreducing conditions, and probed with a polyclonal antibody against the toxin's ß-subunit. Lane 1, K28 toxin (positive control); lane 2, S. cerevisiae(pSL-K28); lane 3, C. glabrata(pGRB2.2-K28); lane 4, P. pastoris(pPIC3.5-K28) after cultivation for 96 h under inducing conditions; lane 5, S. cerevisiae(pYX242) (negative control); lane 6, C. glabrata(pGBR2.2) (negative control); lane 7, P. pastoris(pPIC3.5) (negative control); lane 8, P. pastoris(pPIC3.5-K28) after cultivation for 120 h under inducing conditions; lane 9, S. pombe(pTZ) (empty vector control); lane 10, S. pombe(pTZ-K28) grown under repressed conditions in the presence of thiamine; lane 11, S. pombe(pTZ-K28) grown under induced conditions in the absence of thiamine. The position and size of the correctly processed /ß heterodimeric K28 virus toxin is indicated.
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-galactosidase (Mel1p), inulinase (Inu1p), and/or
-mating factor were used (16) (a virally encoded pptox secretion signal has not yet been tested). To fill this gap and to show that the K28 pptox leader peptide is suitable for driving heterologous protein secretion in different yeast genera, the series of pptox-based yeast expression vectors described above was further modified in such a way that the K28 protoxin sequence (ptox) was removed and replaced by an in-frame fusion of GFP to the 36-amino-acid presequence of K28 pptox (Fig. 1B). As described above for the full-length pptox constructs, the GFP secretion vectors were transformed into each of the four yeast species tested and the intracellular localization and secretion pattern of GFP was analyzed by confocal fluorescence microscopy as well as by SDS-PAGE and Western analysis of extracellular proteins present in the cell-free culture supernatant. As shown in Fig. 4, confocal laser scanning microscopy of GFP-expressing yeast transformants resulted in a fluorescence pattern that is characteristic for a protein that is being secreted into the medium; in each case, intracellular GFP fluorescence was detectable within the ER-Golgi system as well as at the outer yeast cell surface. Because of the bigger cell size of S. pombe compared to that seen with the other yeast genera tested, ER-Golgi localization of GFP and its final targeting to the yeast cell surface was most prominent in fission yeast transformants (Fig. 4, bottom right panel). To further confirm that GFP is indeed secreted into the medium and not retained within the yeast cell wall, culture supernatants of each yeast transformant were subjected to SDS-PAGE and GFP secretion was determined by Western analysis and probing with a monoclonal anti-GFP antibody. As shown in Fig. 4, GFP was efficiently secreted into the medium by all four yeast species; in each case, a single GFP protein signal was detectable in the corresponding immunoblot. Efficacy of GFP secretion was most pronounced in S. pombe and P. pastoris transformants, and on the basis of a direct comparison of the amount of GFP secreted by the indicated yeasts with that corresponding to the known amount of GFP that had been used as a protein standard on the same immunoblot, it can be estimated that pptox-driven GFP secretion was in the range of 0.1 to 2 mg of GFP per liter of culture medium. This rather efficient GFP secretion result was also confirmed by the observation that in each yeast transformant, GFP fluorescence was visible in a cell-free, 10-fold-concentrated culture supernatant (data not shown).
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FIG. 4. pptox-driven GFP secretion in yeast. Fluorescence microscopy (upper panel in each pair of panels) and Western analysis (lower panel in each pair of panels) of the indicated yeast transformant after in vivo expression of GFP fused to the amino-terminal secretion signal of K28 pptox. The inset in the bottom right panel shows a stronger magnification of the confocal laser scanning micrograph, illustrating localization of GFP within the secretory pathway (ER and Golgi) of fission yeast. In each case, SDS-PAGE and Western analysis of a cell-free culture supernatant probed with a monoclonal anti-GFP antibody were performed as described in the legend to Fig. 3. Lanes 1, GFP marker (positive control; 5 ng); lanes 2, prestained marker protein standard; lane 3, GFP secreted by C. glabrata(pGRB2.2-pptoxGFP); lane 4, C. glabrata(pGRB2.2) (empty vector control); lane 5, GFP secreted by P. pastoris(pPIC3.5-pptoxGFP) grown for 96 h under inducing conditions in the presence of methanol; lane 6, P. pastoris(pPIC3.5-pptoxGFP) grown under noninducing conditions in the absence of methanol; lane 7, GFP secreted by S. cerevisiae(pFB-pptoxGFP) grown under inducing conditions on galactose; lane 8, S. cerevisiae(pFB-pptoxGFP) grown under repressed culture conditions on glucose; lane 9, S. pombe(pTZ-pptox) (empty vector control); lane 10, S. pombe(pTZ-pptoxGFP) grown under repressed conditions in the presence of thiamine; lane 11, S. pombe(pTZ-pptoxGFP) grown under induced conditions in the absence of thiamine.
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-amylase secretion (30), this might be a fruitful strategy to further increase pptox-driven foreign protein secretion in yeast.
This work was kindly supported by a grant from Aventis Research & Technologies (Frankfurt am Main) to M.J.S. and is part of patent number DPA 10062302-6.
Present address: Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Slovenia, SI-1504 Ljubljana, Slovenia. ![]()
Present address: Medizinische Mikrobiologie und Hygiene (Abteilung Virologie), Universität des Saarlandes, D-66421 Homburg/Saar, Germany. ![]()
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/ß heterodimeric protein toxin. Virology 213:341-351.[CrossRef][Medline]
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