Of note, almost all natural allergens are derived from eukaryotic sources and frequently contain intramolecular disulfide

bonds as well as post-translationationally linked carbohydrates. The yeast most frequently used for allergen expression has been Pichia pastoris (Bollok et al., 2009; Pokoj et al., 2010; Stadlmayr et al., 2010) but other yeasts such as Yarrowia lipolytica have been found to be attractive alternative host organisms for recombinant protein expression and could be used for allergen expression (Domínguez et al., 1998; Muller et al., 1998). Yarrowia lipolytica is a hemi-ascomycetous dimorphic fungus that belongs to the order Saccharomycetales. The natural habitats of this fungus are oil-polluted environments and foods such as cheese, yoghurt, meat, and poultry PLX-4720 concentration products. It naturally produces several enzymes such as proteases, lipases, and esterases (Barth & Gaillardin, 1996) PLX3397 purchase which can be secreted via the co-translational pathway, similar to what occurs in higher eukaryotes (Boisramé et al., 1998). Additionally, Y. lipolytica

is considered to be non-pathogenic and several processes based on the use of this fungus were classified as ‘generally recognized as safe’ by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Because of the large number of genetic markers and molecular tools available, this yeast is considered an efficient heterologous protein production system (Muller et al., 1998; Gasmi et al., 2011; Rao et al., 2011). Several Y. lipolytica promoters have been used for recombinant protein expression (Domínguez et al., 1998; Muller et al., 1998; Wang et al.,

1999; Pignède et al., 2000). The copper-inducible bi-directional promoter of YlMTPI and YlMTPII genes has been characterized previously (García, 1993; Domínguez et al., 2003). In this work, we report the expression of the major allergen Alt a 1 of A. alternata using Y. lipolytica. The recombinant allergen shows Thalidomide immunological characteristics similar to those of the natural allergen and could be used for immunotherapy and diagnostics. The Y. lipolytica strains used in this study were E150 (MatB, leu2–270, ura3-302, his1, xpr2-322) and W29 (MatA). The yeast media used were YEPD (yeast extract 1%, peptone 2%, glucose 1%) and Yeast Nitrogen Base (YNB 0.7%, glucose 1%). For allergen production, 50 mL of 0.7% YNB medium (Difco, Detroit, MI) supplemented with 1% glucose, 0.2 mM uracil, and 0.3 mM histidine, was inoculated with an isolated colony from a YNB-agar plate and grown overnight at 28 °C with agitation. Cells were collected by centrifugation at 3000 g for 5 min and resuspended at an OD600 nm of 0.5 in 200 mL of the same medium. When the culture reached an OD of 0.8–1.0, CuSO4 was added to a final concentration of 0.4 mM, and the culture continued to grow for 24 h.