The humanization of N-glycosylation pathways in yeast

Yeast and other fungal protein-expression hosts have been extensively used to produce industrial enzymes, and are often the expression system of choice when manufacturing costs are of primary concern. However, for the production of therapeutic glycoproteins intended for use in humans, yeast have been less useful owing to their inability to modify proteins with human glycosylation structures. Yeast N-glycosylation is of the high-mannose type, which confers a short half-life in vivo and thereby compromises the efficacy of most therapeutic glycoproteins. Several approaches to humanizing yeast N-glycosylation pathways have been attempted over the past decade with limited success. Recently however, advances in the glycoengineering of yeast and the expression of therapeutic glycoproteins with humanized N-glycosylation structures have shown significant promise — this review summarizes the most important developments in the field.