Detection and Elimination of Cellular Bottlenecks in Protein-Producing Yeasts

Abstract

Yeasts are efficient cell factories and are commonly used for the production of recombinant proteins for biopharmaceutical and industrial purposes. For such products high levels of correctly folded proteins are needed, which sometimes requires improvement and engineering of the expression system. The article summarizes major breakthroughs that led to the efficient use of yeasts as production platforms and reviews bottlenecks occurring during protein production. Special focus is given to the metabolic impact of protein production. Furthermore, strategies that were shown to enhance secretion of recombinant proteins in different yeast species are presented.

Keywords: Chaperones; Metabolism; Promoters; Protein degradation; Protein production; Secretion; Yeasts.