Isolation and identification of a marine killer yeast strain YF07b and cloning of the gene encoding killer toxin from the yeast

It was found that the marine yeast strain YF07b could secrete a large amount of killer toxin against a pathogenic yeast strain WCY which could cause milky disease in Portunus trituberculatus.The marine yeast strain YF07b was identified to be Pichia anomala according to the results of routine yeast identification and 18S rDNA and ITS sequences.The gene encoding killer toxin in the marine yeast strain YF07b was amplified by PCR technology.After sequencing,the results show that an open reading frame,consisting of 1 281 bp,encoded a presumed protein of 427 amino acids.The sequence of the cloned gene was found to have 99% match with that of the gene encoding killer toxin in Pichia anomalas strain K.A signal peptide including 17 amino acids appeared in the N-terminal domain of the killer toxin.Therefore,the mature protein consisted of 410 amino acids,its molecular mass was estimated to be 47.4 ku and its isoelctronic point was 4.5.