Acquisition of the ability to assimilate mannitol by Saccharomyces cerevisiae through dysfunction of Tup1-Cyc8, a general corepressor

ABSTRACT: Saccharomyces cerevisiae normally cannot assimilate mannitol, a promising brown macroalgal carbon source for bioethanol production. To date, the molecular mechanisms underlying this inability remain unknown. Here, we found that cells acquiring mannitol-assimilating ability appeared from wild-type S. cerevisiae strain during prolonged culture in mannitol medium. Our microarray analysis revealed that genes for putative mannitol dehydrogenase and hexose transporters were up-regulated in cells acquiring mannitol-assimilating ability. Take account of our other results including complementation analysis and cell growth data, we demonstrated that this acquisition of mannitol-assimilating ability was due to the spontaneous mutation in the gene encoding Tup1 or Cyc8. Tup1-Cyc8 is the general corepressor complex involved in the repression of many kinds of genes. Thus, it is suggested that the inability of wild-type S. cerevisiae to assimilate mannitol can be attributed to the transcriptional repression of a set of genes involved in mannitol utilization by Tup1-Cyc8 corepressor. In other words, Tup1-Cyc8 is a key regulator of mannitol metabolism in S. cerevisiae. We also showed that S. cerevisiae strain which carries mutant allele of TUP1 or CYC8 produced ethanol from mannitol efficiently. Especially, strain carrying mutant allele of CYC8 showed high tolerance to salt, which is superior to other ethanologenic microorganisms. This characteristic is highly beneficial to produce bioethanol from marine biomass. Taken together, Tup1-Cyc8 can be an ideal target to develop a yeast-algal bioethanol production system. To figure out how Mtl+ strains (cells acquiring ability to grow in mannitol medium) had acquired the ability to assimilate mannitol, we performed genome-wide analysis by using Nimblegen microarrays. Yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae cells (wild-type BY4742 strain and two Mtl+ strains, MK3619 and MK3683) were grown at 30°C to the logarithmic phase in SC or SM media. Total RNA was purified and the 4 RNA samples (BY4742 cells in SC as control, MK3619 cells in SM, MK3683 cells in both SC and SM) were analyzed with Nimblegen microarrays.

ORGANISM(S): Saccharomyces cerevisiae

SUBMITTER: Shigeyuki Kawai 

PROVIDER: E-GEOD-55755 | biostudies-arrayexpress |

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-arrayexpress