Project description:The ability of the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae to convert glucose, even in the presence of oxygen, via glycolysis and the fermentative pathway to ethanol has played an important role in its domestication. Despite the extensive knowledge on these pathways in S. cerevisiae, relatively little is known about these pathways in other industrially-relevant Saccharomyces yeast species. In this study we explore the diversity of the glycolytic and fermentative pathways within the Saccharomyces genus using S. cerevisiae, S. kudriavzevii and S. eubayanus as paradigms. Sequencing data revealed a highly conserved genetic makeup of the glycolytic and fermentative pathways in the three species in terms of number of paralogous genes. Although promoter regions were less conserved between the three species as compared to coding sequences, binding sites for Rap1, Gcr1 and Abf1, main transcriptional regulators of glycolytic and fermentative genes, were highly conserved. Transcriptome profiling of these three strains grown in aerobic batch cultivation in chemically defined medium with glucose as carbon source, revealed a remarkably similar expression of the glycolytic and fermentative genes across species, and the conserved classification of genes into major and minor paralogs. Furthermore, transplantation of the promoters of major paralogs of S. kudriavzevii and S. eubayanus into S. cerevisiae demonstrated not only the transferability of these promoters, but also the similarity of their strength and response to various environmental stimuli. The relatively low homology of S. kudriavzevii and S. eubayanus promoters to their S. cerevisiae relatives makes them very attractive alternatives for strain construction in S. cerevisiae, thereby expanding S. cerevisiae molecular toolbox.
Project description:Natural grape-juice fermentations involve the sequential development of different yeast species which strongly influence the chemical and sensorial traits of the final product. In the present study,we aimed to examine the transcriptomic response of Saccharomyces cerevisiae to the presence of Hanseniaspora guilliermondii wine fermentation.
Project description:During fermentation Saccharomyces yeast produces various aroma-active metabolites determining the different characteristics of aroma and taste in fermented beverages. Amino acid utilization by yeast during brewer´s wort fermentation is seen as linked to flavour profile. To better understand the relationship between the biosynthesis of aroma relevant metabolites and the importance of amino acids, DNA microarrays were performed for Saccharomyces cerevisiae strain S81 and Saccharomyces pastorianus var. carlsbergensis strain S23, respectively. Thereby, changes in transcription of genes were measured, which are associated with amino acid assimilation and its derived aroma-active compounds during fermentation.
Project description:The genus Flaveria has been extensively used as a model to study the evolution of C4 photosynthesis as it contains both C3 and C4 species as well as a number of species that exhibit intermediate types of photosynthesis. The current phylogenetic tree of the Flaveria genus contains 21 of the 23 known Flaveria species and has been constructed using a combination of morphologicial data and three non-coding DNA sequences (nuclear encoded ETS, ITS and chloroplast encoded trnl-F). However, recent studies have suggested that phylogenetic trees inferred using a small number of molecular sequences may often be incorrect. Moreover, studies in other genera have often shown substantial differences between trees inferred using morphological data and those using molecular sequence. To provide new insight into the phylogeny of the genus Flaveria we utilize RNA-Seq data to construct a multi-gene concatenated phylogenetic tree of 17 Flaveria species. Furthermore, we use this new data to identify 14 C4 specific non-synonymous mutation sites, 12 of which (86%) can be independently verified by public sequence data. We propose that the data collection method provided in this study can be used as a generic method for facilitating phylogenetic tree reconstruction in the absence of reference genomes for the target species. 18 Flaveria sample including 11 species are sequenced, other three samples were also sequenced as out-group. In all, 21 samples.
Project description:RNAi, a gene-silencing pathway triggered by double-stranded RNA, is conserved in diverse eukaryotic species but has been lost in the model budding yeast, Saccharomyces cerevisiae. We report that RNAi is present in other budding-yeast species, including Saccharomyces castellii and Candida albicans. These species use noncanonical Dicer proteins to generate siRNAs, which mostly correspond to transposable elements and Y´ subtelomeric repeats. In S. castellii, RNAi mutants are viable but have excess Y´ mRNA levels. In S. cerevisiae, introducing Dicer and Argonaute of S. castellii restores RNAi, and the reconstituted pathway silences endogenous retrotransposons. These results identify a novel class of Dicer proteins, bring the tool of RNAi to the study of budding yeasts, and bring the tools of budding yeast to the study of RNAi.