Expanding the Genetic Repertoire of the Methylotrophic Yeast Pichia pastoris

To increase the utility of protein mutagenesis with unnatural amino acids, a recombinant expression system in the methylotrophic yeast Pichia pastoris was developed. Aminoacyl-tRNA synthetase/suppressor tRNA (aaRS/tRNA(CUA)) pairs previously evolved in Saccharomyces cerevisiae to be specific for unnatural amino acids were inserted between eukaryotic transcriptional control elements and stably incorporated into the P. pastoris genome. Both the Escherichia coli tyrosyl- and leucyl-RS/tRNA(CUA) pairs were shown to be orthogonal in P. pastoris and used to incorporate eight unnatural amino acids in response to an amber codon with high yields and fidelities. In one example, we show that a recombinant human serum albumin mutant containing a keto amino acid (p-acetylphenylalanine) can be efficiently expressed in this system and selectively conjugated via oxime ligation to a therapeutic peptide mimetic containing an epsilon-(2-(aminooxy)acetyl)-L-lysine residue. Moreover, unnatural amino acid expression in the methylotrophic host was systematically optimized by modulation of aaRS levels to express mutant human serum albumin in excess of 150 mg/L in shake flasks, more than an order of magnitude better than that reported in S. cerevisiae. This methodology should allow the production of high yields of complex proteins containing unnatural amino acids whose expression is not practical in existing systems.