The development of a kanamycin resistance gene for positive selection in the yeast pichia pastoris

The yeast Pichia pastoris is used as a host for the production of proteins for basic and applied research. Over 400 foreign proteins, such as human insulin, bacterial tetanus toxin, and Syrian hamster prion protein, have been successfully expressed in this yeast. In order for P.pastoris to make a desired protein, the gene encoding this protein must be transformed and integrated into the yeast genome. However, in order to identify a yeast strain that has taken up the foreign gene, a selectable marker gene must be covalently linked to this foreign gene. The presence of a selectable marker gene confers a property on the yeast cell that helps you identify the cells containing your favorite foreign gene. We are trying to develop the bacterial kanamycin resistance gene into a selectable marker gene for use in P. pastoris. If we are successful, we will be able to transform P.pastoris cells with plasmids containing the kanamycin resistance gene and the desired foreign gene and then identify the yeast cells that have taken up the foreign genes by their ability to grow on kanamycin, which is cheaper and easier than some current methods