Production and structural modeling of a novel asparaginase in Yarrowia lipolytica

Asparaginase catalyzes the conversion of asparagine into aspartic acid and ammonia. The enzyme has various industrial applications and it is considered as an anticancer drug for treatment of certain leukemias. In the current study, production of asparaginase was investigated by Yarrowia lipolytica as well as optimized its production and determined its molecular characteristics by in silico analysis. Y. lipolytica DSM3286 produced 17.14 U/ml of asparaginase in flask culture. Optimization of asparaginase production was done by response surface methodology and the enzyme production increases up to 102.85 U/ml. The enzyme production reached 210 U/ml in a bioreactor which is 12-fold more than flask culture containing non-optimized medium. Asparaginase gene of Y. lipolytica was identified and isolated on the basis of comparison with asparaginase gene sequences of other microorganisms. The gene has 981 nucleotides and its protein has 326 amino acids. According to in silico analysis, the secondary structure of the enzyme is composed of 9 α-helixes and 11 β-sheets. Y. lipolytica produces type II asparaginase with high affinity for asparagine which is a suitable eukaryotic asparaginase for treatment of hematopoietic cancers. Hence, Y. lipolytica could be recommended as a new eukaryotic microbial source for the production of this important therapeutic enzyme.