High-level expression of extracellular lipase Lip2 from Yarrowia lipolytica in Pichia pastoris and its purification and characterization

The extracellular lipase gene from Yarrowia lipolytica (YlLip2) was cloned into the pPICZαA and integrated into the genome of the methylotrophic yeast Pichia pastoris X-33. The lipase was successfully expressed and secreted with an apparent molecular weight of 39 kDa using Saccharomyces cerevisiae secretion signal peptide (α-factor) under the control of the methanol inducible promoter of the alcohol oxidase 1 gene (AOX1). The lipase activity of 12,500,000 U/l (2.10 g total protein and 0.63 g lipase per liter) was obtained in a fed-batch cultivation, where methanol feeding was linked to the dissolved oxygen content after initial glycerol culture. After fermentation, the supernatant was concentrated by ultrafiltration with a 10 kDa cut off membrane and purified with ion exchange chromatography using Q Sepharose FF. Deglycosylation showed that the recombinant lipase is a glycoprotein which contains the same content of sugar (about 12%) as the native lipase from Y. lipolytica. The optimum temperature and pH of the recombinant lipase was 40 °C and 8.0, respectively. The lipase showed high activity toward long-chain fatty acid methyl esters (C12-C16).