Physiological characterization of the yeast metallothionein (CUP1) promoter, and consequences of overexpressing its transcriptional activator, ACE1

Abstract

Using the anticoagulant, hirudin, from the leech Hirudo medicinalis as a secreted reporter protein, the influence of physiological parameters on activity and regulation of the yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) metallothionein (CUP1) promoter was studied. Induction of CUP1-directed hirudin expression from 2 mu-based vectors was possible at any time point during diauxic batch growth, even in cells approaching stationary phase. The highest titers of hirudin were obtained when the CUP1 promoter was activated immediately following inoculation of the cultures. If such a pseudo-constitutive fermentation strategy was adopted, the promoter was superior to an optimized variant (GAPFL) of the strong, constitutive GAPDH promoter. This superiority was primarily due to the relative independence of CUP1 promoter activity of the physiological status of host cells: whilst the maximal strength of the CUP1 and GAPFL promoters was comparable, CUP1-directed hirudin expression was high in all phases of diauxic batch growth, whereas hirudin production from the GAPFL promoter declined in post-diauxic cultures. High activity of the CUP1 promoter was observed on both a fermentable (glucose) and a non-fermentable (ethanol) carbon source. Hirudin expression could be adjusted to different levels by varying the amount of inducer (cupric sulphate) added to cultures. The copper concentrations required for maximal promoter induction had no negative effects on host growth and interfered with neither hirudin secretion nor with the biological activity of the peptide. Overexpression of the transcriptional activator, ACE1, resulted in increased levels of hirudin mRNA. Hirudin titers increased in parallel to mRNA concentrations in cultures grown in the presence of low concentrations of copper. In contrast, at high copper doses, elevated levels of the ACE1 protein resulted in inferior hirudin production. Cells overexpressing ACE1 while harbouring a CUP1-drived hirudin expression cassette showed slow growth and poor plasmid maintenance. It was tested whether this might be the result of a block in the secretory pathway; however, measurements of intracellular hirudin did not support this hypothesis. The data rather indicated that hirudin production was limited by a metabolic constraint downstream of transcription but upstream of the secretory pathway.