Further advances in the production of membrane proteins in Pichia pastoris

Membrane proteins have essential cellular functions and are therefore of high interest in both academia and industry. Many efforts have been made on producing those targets in yields allowing crystallization experiments aiming for high resolution structures and mechanistic understanding. The first step of production provides a crucial barrier to overcome, but what we now see, is great progress in membrane protein structural determination in a relatively short time. Achievements on recombinant protein production have been essential for this development and the yeast Pichia pastoris is the most commonly used host for eukaryotic membrane proteins. High-resolution structures nicely illustrate the successes in protein production, and this is the measure used by Ramón and Marin in their review “Advances in the production of membrane proteins in Pichia pastoris” from 2011. Here, additional advances on production and crystallization of eukaryotic membrane proteins are described and reflected on.