Construction of a novel MK-4 biosynthetic pathway in Pichia pastoris through heterologous expression of HsUBIAD1

• Published in: Microbial cell factories Vol. 18; no. 1; p. 169
• Main Authors: Sun, Xiaowen, Liu, Hui, Wang, Peng, Wang, Li, Ni, Wenfeng, Yang, Qiang, Wang, Han, Tang, Hengfang, Zhao, Genhai, Zheng, Zhiming
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England BioMed Central Ltd 10.10.2019; BioMed Central; BMC
• Subjects: Alcohol; Aromatic prenyltransferase; Backup software; Biosynthesis; Biosynthetic Pathways; Cancer; Cell culture; Deoxyribonucleic acid; Dimethylallyltranstransferase - genetics; Dimethylallyltranstransferase - metabolism; DNA; E coli; Enzymes; Gene expression; Gene Expression Regulation, Fungal; Genetic engineering; Geranylgeranyl diphosphate synthase; Glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase; HsUBIAD1; Industrial applications; Industrial equipment; Initial conditions; Laboratories; Menadione; Menaquinone; Menaquinones; Monosaccharides; Novels; Phosphates; Phylloquinone; Phytonadione; Pichia - genetics; Pichia - metabolism; Pichia pastoris; Plasmids; Proteins; Recombinant Proteins; Strain; Studies; Vitamin K; Vitamin K 2 - analogs & derivatives; Vitamin K 2 - metabolism; Yeast; Yeasts; Yield; China; Aromatic prenyltransferase; Pichia pastoris; Geranylgeranyl diphosphate synthase; HsUBIAD1; Menaquinone
• ISSN: 1475-2859; 1475-2859
• DOI: 10.1186/s12934-019-1215-9

With a variety of physiological and pharmacological functions, menaquinone is an essential prenylated product that can be endogenously converted from phylloquinone (VK ) or menadione (VK ) via the expression of Homo sapiens UBIAD1 (HsUBIAD1). The methylotrophic yeast, Pichia pastoris, is an attractive expression system that has been successfully applied to the efficient expression of heterologous proteins. However, the menaquinone biosynthetic pathway has not been discovered in P. pastoris. Firstly, we constructed a novel synthetic pathway in P. pastoris for the production of menaquinone-4 (MK-4) via heterologous expression of HsUBIAD1. Then, the glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase constitutive promoter (P ) appeared to be mostsuitable for the expression of HsUBIAD1 for various reasons. By optimizing the expression conditions of HsUBIAD1, its yield increased by 4.37 times after incubation at pH 7.0 and 24 °C for 36 h, when compared with that under the initial conditions. We found HsUBIAD1 expressed in recombinant GGU-23 has the ability to catalyze the biosynthesis of MK-4 when using VK and VK as the isopentenyl acceptor. In addition, we constructed a ribosomal DNA (rDNA)-mediated multi-copy expression vector for the fusion expression of SaGGPPS and PpIDI, and the recombinant GGU-GrIG afforded higher MK-4 production, so that it was selected as the high-yield strain. Finally, the yield of MK-4 was maximized at 0.24 mg/g DCW by improving the GGPP supply when VK was the isopentenyl acceptor. In this study, we constructed a novel synthetic pathway in P. pastoris for the biosynthesis of the high value-added prenylated product MK-4 through heterologous expression of HsUBIAD1 and strengthened accumulation of GGPP. This approach could be further developed and accomplished for the biosynthesis of other prenylated products, which has great significance for theoretical research and industrial application.