Highly efficient expression of Rasamsonia emersonii lipase in Pichia pastoris: characterization and gastrointestinal simulated digestion in vitro

BACKGROUND Acidic lipases with high catalytic activities under acidic conditions have important application values in the food, feed and pharmaceutical industries. However, the availability of acidic lipases is still the main obstacle to their industrial applications. Although a novel acidic lipase Rasamsonia emersonii (LIPR) was heterologously expressed in Escherichia coli, the expression level was unsatisfactory. RESULTS To achieve the high‐efficiency expression and secretion of LIPR in Pichia pastoris GS115, the combinatorial optimization strategy was adopted including gene codon preference, signal peptide, molecular chaperone co‐expression and disruption of vacuolar sorting receptor VPS10. The activity of the combinatorial optimization engineered strain in a shake flask reached 1480 U mL−1, which was 8.13 times greater than the P. pastoris GS115 parental strain. After high‐density fermentation in a 5‐L bioreactor, the highest enzyme activity reached as high as 11 820 U mL−1. LIPR showed the highest activity at 40 °C and pH 4.0 in the presence of Ca2+ ion. LIPR exhibited strong tolerance to methanol, indicating its potential application in biodiesel biosynthesis. Moreover, the gastrointestinal digestion simulation results demonstrated that LIPR was tolerant to pepsin and trypsin, but its activity was inhibited by sodium taurodeoxycholate. CONCLUSION This study provided an effective approach for the high expression of acidic lipase LIPR. LIPR was more appropriate for lipid digestion in the stomach than in intestine according to the gastrointestinal digestion simulation results. © 2024 Society of Chemical Industry.