Overview of protein expression in Pichia pastoris

Pichia pastoris is a methylotrophic yeast and can be used as a heterologous expression system. This microorganism is as easy to manipulate as Escherichia coli, but has many of the advantages of eukaryotic expression (e.g., protein processing, folding, and post-translational modifications), and it is faster, easier, and cheaper to use than other eukaryotic expression systems, such as baculovirus or mammalian tissue culture. It also generally yields higher expression levels. This overview discusses important considerations for the use of Pichia pastoris, including strains for expression, expression plasmids, transformation by integration, and post-translational modifications. Examples of expression are given and finally, legal issues regarding patent rights for heterologous protein expression in Pichia pastoris are described.