Production of Recombinant Tuna Growth Hormone by a Yeast, Saccharomyces cerevisiae

Abstract

The cDNA sequence coding for tuna growth hormone (tGH) was placed under the control of the repressible acid phosphatase (PHO5) promoter of a yeast, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, in an expression plasmid, pAM82. The yeast cells transformed with the plasmid synthesized tGH only when the cDNA was attached to the vector through a synthetic oligonucleotide linker having a similar sequence to the 5'-flanking region of the PHO5 structural region. The amount of tGH produced in yeast cells accounted for more than 3% of the total cellular protein and the product was immunologically identified as tGH by Western blotting using polyclonal antibodies specific to tGH.