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Engineering a Filamentous Fungal Strain for Recombinant Protein Production

Ealumalai, Pavithra (2022) MOBN03 20212
Degree Projects in Molecular Biology
Popular Abstract
Engineering fungal organisms to produce desired protein – making a fantasy come alive!!

Did you know that fungal organisms are used in the industrial production of various organic acids, enzymes, and secondary metabolites for nearly 100 years? And what makes these organisms to be in the limelight ever since then?

Here is the answer. The fungal cells have an amazing property of secreting high levels of proteins and metabolites extracellularly, which is a boon for the industries. This grabbed the attention of many researchers to genetically modify these organisms to produce the desired proteins. In this study, we focus on genetically modifying a fungal organism to increase the production of the protein of interest in an economical way.... (More)
Engineering fungal organisms to produce desired protein – making a fantasy come alive!!

Did you know that fungal organisms are used in the industrial production of various organic acids, enzymes, and secondary metabolites for nearly 100 years? And what makes these organisms to be in the limelight ever since then?

Here is the answer. The fungal cells have an amazing property of secreting high levels of proteins and metabolites extracellularly, which is a boon for the industries. This grabbed the attention of many researchers to genetically modify these organisms to produce the desired proteins. In this study, we focus on genetically modifying a fungal organism to increase the production of the protein of interest in an economical way.

A gene is a part of DNA that carries information to produce a protein that is needed for the cells to function normally. By genetically integrating the gene coding for your desired protein, it is possible to make the host cells produce what you wish for. But as you might know, it is not as easy as we say!! Over decades, multiple strategies have been developed for making this come true. In my thesis, we have used one of the profound strategies to make a fungal organism produce foreign protein more efficiently and have optimized methods to introduce these genes into the fungal genome.

While producing a foreign protein in a microbial cell factory, it is essential to make sure that they are secreted extracellularly. And more importantly, the function of a protein is determined by its 3D structure. Certain enzymes localized in the cell compartments are responsible for folding the protein into the desired structure. There are certain DNA fragments (called “Secretion signal peptides”) that navigate the protein through the secretory pathway and there are certain DNA fragments (called “Localization Signal”) that localize the folding enzymes inside cell compartments. We have designed a library of these Secretion signal peptides tagged with fluorescent proteins to determine which signal results in increased protein secretion. Also, a library of Localization signals fused with fluorescent proteins was designed to identify which signal localizes the desired enzyme in the cell compartments. These designed signals were introduced into the fungal cells and we successfully identified a few genes that had a high level of expression.

Engineering fungal organisms to produce a protein of interest is going to create a revolution in industries like Biopharmaceuticals, nutraceuticals, food, biotechnology, textile, biofuel, and more. These organisms have the power to make this world greener and a better place to live. And this research can help many industries to produce the desired protein cost-effectively.

Master’s Degree Project in Molecular Biology, 60 credits, 2022
Department of Biology, Lund University

Advisor: Rajni Hatti-Kaul
Lund University, Kemicentrum – Biotechnology Department (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
Ealumalai, Pavithra
supervisor
organization
course
MOBN03 20212
year
type
H2 - Master's Degree (Two Years)
subject
language
English
id
9085610
date added to LUP
2022-06-08 15:43:59
date last changed
2022-06-08 15:43:59
@misc{9085610,
  author       = {{Ealumalai, Pavithra}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  note         = {{Student Paper}},
  title        = {{Engineering a Filamentous Fungal Strain for Recombinant Protein Production}},
  year         = {{2022}},
}