High level production of thermostable alpha-amylase from Sulfolobus solfataricus in high-cell density culture of the food yeast Candida utilis.

The alpha-amylase from Sulfolobus solfataricus has the commercially important ability to hydrolyze glycosyltrehalose and can be used for the production of trehalose from soluble starch. We have produced this enzyme in the food yeast Candida utilis at extremely high levels. Because the S. solfataricus gene was previously shown to be very poorly expressed, the gene was resynthesized based on codons preferentially found in the highly expressed C. utilis glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GAP) gene. Expression of this synthetic gene under the control of the GAP promoter yielded biologically active alpha-amylase, accounting for more than 50% of the soluble protein. Comparison of the expression levels of various chimeric constructs of the synthetic and native genes indicated that the production level of the alpha-amylase was improved more than 2x10(4)-fold by substituting the native gene with the synthesized one. Northern analysis revealed the formation of short mRNAs in transformants with constructs containing native gene fragments, suggesting that premature termination of the transcripts is responsible for the low production level. The alpha-amylase-producing C. utilis cells were grown up to 92 grams dry cell weight per liter in a synthetic medium, yielding 12.3 g/l alpha-amylase which accounts for up to 27% of total cell proteins.