Optimizing yeast as a host for recombinant protein production

Bok, 2011

Having access to suitably stable, functional recombinant protein samples underpins diverse academic and industrial research efforts to understand the workings of the cell in health and disease. Synthesizing a protein in recombinant host cells typically allows the isolation of the pure protein in quantities much higher than those found in the protein's native source. Yeast is a popular host as it is a eukaryote with similar synthetic machinery to the native human source cells of many proteins of interest, whilst also being quick, easy and cheap to grow and process. Even in these cells the production of some proteins can be plagued by low functional yields. We have identified molecular mechanisms and culture parameters underpinning high yields and have consolidated our findings to engineer improved yeast cell factories. In this chapter we provide an overview of the opportunities available to improve yeast as a host system for recombinant protein production.