Importance of glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PDH) for vanillin tolerance in Saccharomyces cerevisiae

Abstract

Vanillin is derived from lignocellulosic biomass and, as one of the major biomass conversion inhibitors, inhibits yeast growth and fermentation. Vanillin was recently shown to induce the mitochondrial fragmentation and formation of mRNP granules such as processing bodies and stress granules in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Furfural, another major biomass conversion inhibitor, also induces oxidative stress and is reduced in an NAD(P)H-dependent manner to its less toxic alcohol derivative. Therefore, the pentose phosphate pathway (PPP), through which most NADPH is generated, plays a role in tolerance to furfural. Although vanillin also induces oxidative stress and is reduced to vanillyl alcohol in a NADPH-dependent manner, the relationship between vanillin and PPP has not yet been investigated. In the present study, we examined the importance of glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PDH), which catalyzes the rate-limiting NADPH-producing step in PPP, for yeast tolerance to vanillin. The growth of the null mutant of G6PDH gene (zwf1Δ) was delayed in the presence of vanillin, and vanillin was efficiently reduced in the culture of wild-type cells but not in the culture of zwf1Δ cells. Furthermore, zwf1Δ cells easily induced the activation of Yap1, an oxidative stress responsive transcription factor, mitochondrial fragmentation, and P-body formation with the vanillin treatment, which indicated that zwf1Δ cells were more susceptible to vanillin than wild type cells. These findings suggest the importance of G6PDH and PPP in the response of yeast to vanillin.

Keywords: Furfural; G6PDH; Lignocellulosic biomass; Pentose phosphate pathway; Saccharomyces cerevisiae; Vanillin.