Journal of Multidisciplinary Applied Natural Science
Articles in Press

Modification of a Gene Cassette to Express Proglargine in Pichia pastoris: Elimination of Glu-Ala Repeats, Spacer and C-peptide Sequences

Nasution, Uli Julia (Unknown)
Astuti, Rika Indri (Unknown)
Wahyudi, Aris Tri (Unknown)
Hardianto, Dudi (Unknown)
Martius, Efrida (Unknown)



Article Info

Publish Date
10 Mar 2026

Abstract

The growing global prevalence of diabetes mellitus has sharply increased the demand for insulin and its analogues. Pichia pastoris is a well-established system for recombinant pro-insulin and its analogues production. However, conventional gene constructs often include additional sequences, such as Glu-Ala repeats, spacer peptides, and c-peptides that complicate downstream processing and reduce efficiency. This study aimed to construct and express a proglargine (PG) gene cassette lacking the Glu-Ala repeats, spacer, and c-peptide in P. pastoris GS115 to obtain a uniform PG protein. The recombinant vector propagated in Escherichia coli TOP10F’, then expressed in P. pastorisGS115. Selected transformants were cultivated in YPG medium, then induced with 1% and 2% methanol daily in BMMY. The optimum methanol concentration further evaluated in ½ BSM induction medium. The result demonstrated that optimal PG expression was achieved with 2% methanol induction in BMMY, producing higher levels than those with ½ BSM. Among the transformants, PG.c2 produced the highest PG protein in BMMY medium induced with 2% methanol. Dot-blot analysis confirmed the secretion of PG, and LC-HRMS analysis demonstrated 100% amino acid sequence coverage of PG, confirming the integrity and completeness of the expressed protein. This study presented a newly modified PG gene cassette, inserted into pPICZαA vector, to express uniform secreted PG in P. pastoris GS115. By simplifying the precursor structure, a more homogeneous precursor product can be obtained, which is expected to simplify purification and also the downstream enzymatic process of PG into mature insulin glargine.

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Journal Info

Abbrev

jmans

Publisher

Subject

Agriculture, Biological Sciences & Forestry Biochemistry, Genetics & Molecular Biology Chemical Engineering, Chemistry & Bioengineering Chemistry Energy Environmental Science Immunology & microbiology Materials Science & Nanotechnology Mathematics Physics

Description

Journal of Multidisciplinary Applied Natural Science (abbreviated as J. Multidiscip. Appl. Nat. Sci.) is a double-blind peer-reviewed journal for multidisciplinary research activity on natural sciences and their application on daily life. This journal aims to make significant contributions to ...