Changes and roles of membrane compositions in the adaptation of Saccharomyces cerevisiae to ethanol

Abstract

Bioethanol fermentation by Saccharomyces cerevisiae is often stressed by the accumulation of ethanol. Cell membrane is the first assaulting target of ethanol. Ethanol-adapted S. cerevisiae strains provide opportunity to shed light on membrane functions in the ethanol tolerance. This study aimed at clarifying the roles of cell membrane in the ethanol tolerance of S. cerevisiae through comparing membrane components between S. cerevisiae parental strain and ethanol-adapted strains. A directed evolutionary engineering was performed to obtain the ethanol-adapted S. cerevisiae strains. The parental, ethanol-adapted M5 and M10 strains were selected to be compared the percentage of viable cells after exposing to ethanol stress and cell membrane compositions (i.e., ergosterol, trehalose, and fatty acids). Compared with the parental strain, M5 or M10 strain had higher survival rate in the presence of 10% v/v ethanol. Compared with that in the parental strain, contents of trehalose, ergosterol, and fatty acids increased about 15.7, 12.1, and 29.3%, respectively, in M5 strain, and about 47.5, 107.8, and 61.5%, respectively, in M10 strain. Moreover, expression differences of genes involved in fatty acids metabolisms among the parental, M5 and M10 strains were analyzed by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR), and results demonstrated that M5 or M10 strain had higher expression of ACC1 and OLE1 than the parental strain. These results indicated that although being exposed to step-wise increased ethanol, S. cerevisiae cells might remodel membrane components or structure to adapt to the ethanol stress.

Keywords: Bioethanol; Cell membrane; Ethanol tolerance; Gene expression; Saccharomyces cerevisiae.