A novel sucrose-based expression system for heterologous proteins expression in thermotolerant methylotrophic yeast Ogataea thermomethanolica
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Updated: Feb 4, 2026

Expression of Recombinant Proteins in the Methylotrophic Yeast Pichia pastoris
Published on: February 25, 2010
Aekkachai Puseenam1, Kanokarn Kocharin1, Sutipa Tanapongpipat1
1Biodiversity and Biotechnological Resource Research Unit, National Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology, National Science and Technology Development Agency, 113 Thailand Science Park, Phahonyothin Road, Khlong Nueng, Khlong Luang, Pathum Thani 12120, Thailand.
Abstract:
The thermotolerant methylotrophic yeast Ogataea thermomethanolica TBRC656 is a potential host for heterologous protein expression. In this study, a novel expression system was developed for O. thermomethanolica based on the maltase (mal) gene promoter from this organism. The OtMal promoter function was tested for expression of fungal enzymes as reporter genes. Measurement of xylanase reporter enzyme activity showed that the OtMal promoter was repressed during growth on glucose and was activated by sucrose. When sucrose was used as a carbon source, the OtMal promoter was approximately twice as strong as the constitutive OtGAP promoter. Comparison of the OtMal promoter with the methanol-inducible OtAOX promoter showed that OtMal promoter drove 1.2 and 1.7-fold higher expression of xylanase and phytase reporter, respectively, than OtAOX promoter under inducing conditions at 24 h. Our results indicated that this novel expression system could be useful for the production of heterologous proteins from sucrose in yeast O. thermomethanolica.
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