Engineering of glycosylation in yeast and other fungi: current state and perspectives

• Published in: Applied microbiology and biotechnology Vol. 87; no. 5; pp. 1617 - 1631
• Main Authors: De Pourcq, Karen, De Schutter, Kristof, Callewaert, Nico
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Berlin/Heidelberg Berlin/Heidelberg : Springer-Verlag 01.08.2010; Springer-Verlag; Springer; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Biological and medical sciences; Biomedical and Life Sciences; biopharmaceuticals; Biotechnology; Endoplasmic reticulum; Engineering; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Fungal Proteins - genetics; Fungal Proteins - metabolism; Fungi; Fungi - enzymology; Fungi - genetics; Fungi - metabolism; Genetic recombination; Glycoproteins; Glycosylation; Life Sciences; Metabolic Networks and Pathways - genetics; Microbial Genetics and Genomics; Microbiology; Mini-Review; N-glycosylation engineering; O-glycosylation engineering; Pharmaceutical sciences; Pharmacokinetics; Protein Engineering; Proteins; recombinant proteins; Recombinant Proteins - genetics; Recombinant Proteins - metabolism; Studies; Yeast; Yeasts; Fungi; Yeast; N-glycosylation engineering; Biopharmaceuticals; O-glycosylation engineering; Recombinant proteins; Drug; Glycosylation; Recombinant protein
• ISSN: 0175-7598; 1432-0614
• DOI: 10.1007/s00253-010-2721-1

With the increasing demand for recombinant proteins and glycoproteins, research on hosts for producing these proteins is focusing increasingly on more cost-effective expression systems. Yeasts and other fungi are promising alternatives because they provide easy and cheap systems that can perform eukaryotic post-translational modifications. Unfortunately, yeasts and other fungi modify their glycoproteins with heterogeneous high-mannose glycan structures, which is often detrimental to a therapeutic protein's pharmacokinetic behavior and can reduce the efficiency of downstream processing. This problem can be solved by engineering the glycosylation pathways to produce homogeneous and, if so desired, human-like glycan structures. In this review, we provide an overview of the most significant recently reported approaches for engineering the glycosylation pathways in yeasts and fungi.