Secretion of Trichoderma reesei beta-glucosidase by Saccharomyces cerevisiae

An intronless form of the bgl1 gene encoding an extracellular beta-glucosidase from Trichoderma reesei was expressed in the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae under the control of the yeast GAL1 promoter. Transformation of a yeast strain with this vector resulted in transformants that produce and secrete active beta-glucosidase into the growth medium. Additionally, active recombinant beta-glucosidase protein was shown to be localized predominantly in the periplasmic space by using a p-nitrophenyl beta-D-glycoside hydrolysis assay against fractionated yeast cells. The apparent size of the recombinant enzyme was 10-15 kDa larger than that of the native form. Treatment of the recombinant beta-glucosidase with endoglycosidase-H indicated the apparent increase in size was due to N-linked glycosylation.