Secretion of Human Interferons by Yeast

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Abstract
Plasmids were constructed to direct synthesis of the human interferons IFN-α1, IFN-α2, and IFN-γ in the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae . Expression of IFN genes containing coding sequences for secretion signals resulted in the secretion of IFN activity. A large proportion of the IFN-α1 and IFN-α2 isolated from the yeast cell growth media had the same amino termini as the natural mature interferons, suggesting a removal of the signal sequences identical to that of human cells. These results show that a lower eukaryote, such as yeast, can utilize and process a human signal sequence.