RESEARCH ARTICLE A Highly Efficient Recombinant Laccase from the Yeast Yarrowia lipolytica and Its Application in the Hydrolysis of Biomass

Amodified thermal asymmetric interlaced polymerase chain reaction was performed to ob-tain the first yeast laccase gene (YlLac) from the isolated yeast Yarrowia lipolytica. The 1557-bp full-length cDNA of YlLac encoded a mature laccase protein containing 519 amino acids preceded by a signal peptide of 19 amino acids, and the YlLac gene was expressed in the yeast Pichia pastoris. YlLac is a monomeric glycoprotein with a molecular mass of ~55 kDa as determined by polyacrylamide-gel electrophoresis. It showed a higher catalytic effi-ciency towards 2,2-azino-bis(3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulfonate) (kcat/Km = 17.5 s-1 μM-1) and 2,6-dimethoxyphenol (kcat/Km = 16.1 s-1 μM-1) than other reported laccases. The stan-dard redox potential of the T1 site of the enzyme was found to be 772 mV. The highest cata-lytic efficiency of the yeast recombinant laccase, YlLac, makes it a good candidate for industrial applications: it removes phenolic compounds in acid-pretreated woody biomass (Populus balsamifera) and enhanced saccharification