A yeast strain MJ2 that was found to produce a higher amount of γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA) was isolated from the surface of kiwi. Phylogenetic analysis based on the ITS sequence and morphological, biochemical studies indicated that it may belong to Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Under optimum conditions in Czapek’s broth medium with 0.5 % monosodium glutamate, it produced GABA at a concentration of 5.823 g/L after 48 h. A full-length glutamate decarboxylase gene (Scgad) was cloned by PCR amplification. The open reading frame (ORF) of the Scgad gene was composed of 1,755 nucleotides and encoded a protein (585 amino acids) with a predicted molecular weight of 65.897 kDa. The deduced amino acids sequence of Scgad shows 100 %, 65 % and 62 % similarity with S. cerevisiae, Candida glabrata and Kluyveromyces lactis GAD in the polypeptide level, respectively. The Scgad gene was expressed in Escherichia coli BL21 (DE3) cells, and the expression was confirmed by Sodium Dodecyl Sulfate Polyacrylamide Gel Electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE) analysis. The results suggested that the S. cerevisiae GAD (ScGAD) was successfully encoded in E. coli BL21 (DE3) cells. Furthermore, the enzyme activity of ScGAD encoded in E. coli BL21 (DE3) had been significantly enhanced using artificial neural network linked with genetic algorithm (ANN-GA) method.