Overexpression of glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase in genetically modified Saccharomyces cerevisiae

Glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PD) (EC 1.1.1.49) is an abundant enzym e in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. This enzyme is of great interest as an analy tical reagent because it is used in a large number of quantitative assays. A strain of S. cerevisiae was genetically modified to improve G6PD producti on during aerobic culture. The modifications are based on cloning the G6PD sequence under the control of promoters that are upregulated by the carbon source used for yeast growth. The results showed that S. cerevisiae acquire d from a commercial source and the same strain produced by aerobic cultivat ion under controlled conditions provided very similar G6PD. However, G6PD p roduction by genetically modified S, cerevisiae produced very high enzyme a ctivity and showed to be the most effective procedure to obtain glucose-6-p hosphate dehydrogenase. As a consequence, the cost of producing G6PD can be significantly reduced by using strains that contain levels of G6PD up to 1 4-fold higher than the level of G6PD found in commercially available strain s.