Cloning of the gene for a carbohydrate oxidase from Lactuca sativa in the yeasts Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Pichia pastoris

We have cloned the gene for carbohydrate oxidase (CHO) from Lactuca sativa in two species of yeasts (Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Pichia pastoris). The synthetic gene for the carbohydrate oxidase (1821 bp) from L. sativa cloned into the vector pUC57 and inserted into plasmids pYES2 and pGAP using Escherichia coli DH5? strain. The P. pastoris strain X-33 and the S. cerevisiae strain InvSC1 were used for extracellular expression of CHO. After transformation of P. pastoris X-33 with CHO-pGAP construct none of the colonies showed CHO activity. Two samples displayed a band which did not exist in the sample with the empty vector similar to the molecular weight of CHO. The S. cerevisiae strain InvSC1 has been also transformed with CHO-pYES constructs. Three colonies grew on the plate with cells transformed with the construct. One of the samples showed a band corresponding to about 110 kDa, but no CHO activity was recorded in this case either. Cloning of the foreign genes and heterologous expression in yeasts is widely used in biotechnology, but sometimes can be very dependent on the gene sequence and strain used. In order to obtain active CHO enzyme further studies on purification and refolding of expressed protein are necessary.