High-level expression of recombinant human serum albumin from the methylotrophic yeast Pichia pastoris with minimal protease production and activation.

The methylotrophic yeast, Pichia pastoris, is widely used as a host strain for the production of a variety of heterologous proteins. We used P. pastoris for the production of recombinant human serum albumin (rHSA). In several runs of fed-batch fermentation, rapid degradation of rHSA was observed, coinciding with a sudden increase of protease activity in the culture broth. Monitoring the changes in the concentration of the medium components during fermentation suggested that this phenomenon was caused by nitrogen starvation. Increased initial concentrations of ammonia and phosphoric acid in the medium prevented the protease production during fermentation. Using this improved medium, stable production of rHSA of around 1.4 g/l was achieved. Although protease activity in the culture broth of the improved medium was not detected by the casein plate method at the end of fermentation, potential protease activity remained and could be activated by decreasing the pH of the culture broth, a high degradation rate of 660 mg HSA/l/h was observed at pH 4.3, but degradation did not occur above pH 5.9.