Hindawi Publishing Corporation Enzyme Research Volume 2014, Article ID 197938, 20 pages http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2014/197938 Research Article Molecular Cloning and Optimization for High Level Expression of Cold-Adapted Serine Protease from Antarctic Yeast Glaciozyma antarctica PI12 Norsyuhada Alias,1 Mu’adz Ahmad Mazian,1 Abu Bakar Salleh,1 Mahiran Basri,2 and Raja Noor Zaliha Raja Abd. Rahman1 1 Enzyme and Microbial Technology Research Centre, Faculty of Biotechnology and Biomolecular Sciences, Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM), 43400 Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia 2 EnzymeandMicrobialTechnologyResearchCentre,FacultyofScience,UniversitiPutraMalaysia(UPM),43400Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia Correspondence should be addressed to Raja Noor Zaliha Raja Abd. Rahman;
[email protected] Received 4 March 2014; Revised 6 May 2014; Accepted 14 May 2014; Published 30 June 2014 Academic Editor: Raffaele Porta Copyright © 2014 Norsyuhada Alias et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Psychrophilic basidiomycete yeast, Glaciozyma antarctica strain PI12, was shown to be a protease-producer. Isolation of the PI12 protease gene from genomic and mRNA sequences allowed determination of 19 exons and 18 introns. Full-length cDNA of PI12 protease gene was amplified by rapid amplification of cDNA ends (RACE) strategy with an open reading frame (ORF) of 2892 bp, coded for 963 amino acids. PI12 protease showed low homology with the subtilisin-like protease from fungus Rhodosporidium toruloides (42% identity) and no homology to other psychrophilic proteases. The gene encoding mature PI12 protease was cloned into Pichia pastoris expression vector, pPIC9, and positioned under the induction of methanol-alcohol oxidase (AOX)promoter.