Improved Production of Recombinant Carboxylesterase FumDM by Co-Expressing Molecular Chaperones in Pichia pastoris

Fumonisins (FBs) are mycotoxins that threaten public health and food safety worldwide. Enzymatic degradation of Fumonisin B1 (FB1) through decarboxylation has attracted much attention, whereas application of FB1 carboxylesterase in detoxification requires more effective expression of the recombinant carboxylesterase. In this study, the carboxylesterase FumDM from Sphingopyxis sp. ASAG22 was codon-optimized and co-expressed with five different molecular chaperones (PDI, CPR5, ERO1, HAC1, and Bip) in order to improve the expression level of FumDM in Pichia pastoris (also known as Komagataella phaffii) GS115. The co-expression of different chaperones caused varying degrees of improvement in FumDM activity for FB1. The enzyme activities of recombinant strains over-expressing PDI and CPR5 reached the highest levels of 259.47 U/mL and 161.34 U/mL, 635% and 357% higher than the original enzyme activity, respectively. Transcriptomic analysis of the two recombinant strains in comparison with the control strain showed that the correct folding of proteins assisted by molecular chaperones played a key role in the improvement of FumDM expression and its enzyme activity. This study demonstrated that co-expression of carboxylesterase FumDM and folding chaperones was an efficient strategy and therefore might inspire new perspectives on the improvement of carboxylesterase for detoxification of FB1.