N-glycan modification in Aspergillus species

The production by filamentous fungi of therapeutic glycoproteins intended for use in mammals is held back by the inherent difference in protein N-glycosylation and by the inability of the fungal cell to modify proteins with mammalian glycosylation structures. Here, we report protein N-glycan engineering in two Aspergillus species. We functionally expressed in the fungal hosts heterologous chimeric fusion proteins containing different localization peptides and catalytic domains. This strategy allowed the isolation of a strain with a functional alpha-1,2-mannosidase producing increased amounts of N-glycans of the Man(5)GlcNAc(2) type. This strain was further engineered by the introduction of a functional GlcNAc transferase I construct yielding GlcNAcMan(5)GlcNac(2) N-glycans. Additionally, we deleted algC genes coding for an enzyme involved in an early step of the fungal glycosylation pathway yielding Man(3)GlcNAc(2) N-glycans. This modification of fungal glycosylation is a step toward the ability to produce humanized complex N-glycans on therapeutic proteins in filamentous fungi.