EXPRESSION OF TRIMERIC CD40 LIGAND IN PICHIA-PASTORIS - USE OF A RAPID METHOD TO DETECT HIGH-LEVEL EXPRESSING TRANSFORMANTS

Pichia pastoris is a yeast capable of expressing large amounts of some proteins. When expression vectors are introduced into P. pastoris, in dividual transformants typically express widely varying amounts of pro tein. Because clones expressing the highest level of protein occur inf requently during the transformation process, finding them can be very labor-intensive. We developed an immunological based filter screening method that rapidly detects transformants secreting large amounts of a heterologous protein. We have applied this method to the expression o f a soluble trimeric form of CD40L, a molecule that regulates B-cell r esponses. Using this method, we identified transformants with one to 1 3 copies of the CD40L expression cassette. Maximum expression was obta ined with clones containing eight or more copies of the expression cas sette, and a clone with eight copies was selected for further analysis . High cell density fermentation of this clone using a mixed glycerol: methanol feed yielded 255 mg CD40L per liter of supernatant.