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The ability to use nitrate confers advantage to Dekkera bruxellensis over S. cerevisiae and can explain its adaptation to industrial fermentation processes

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Abstract

The yeast Dekkera bruxellensis has been regarded as a contamination problem in industrial ethanol production because it can replace the originally inoculated Saccharomyces cerevisiae strains. The present study deals with the influence of nitrate on the relative competitiveness of D. bruxellensis and S. cerevisiae in sugar cane ethanol fermentations. The industrial strain D. bruxellensis GDB 248 showed higher growth rates than S. cerevisiae JP1 strain in mixed ammonia/nitrate media, and nitrate assimilation genes were only slightly repressed by ammonia. These characteristics rendered D. bruxellensis cells with an ability to overcome S. cerevisiae populations in both synthetic medium and in sugar cane juice. The results were corroborated by data from industrial fermentations that showed a correlation between high nitrate concentrations and high D. bruxellensis cell counts. Moreover, the presence of nitrate increased fermentation efficiency of D. bruxellensis cells in anaerobic conditions, which may explain the maintenance of ethanol production in the presence of D. bruxellensis in industrial processes. The presence of high levels of nitrate in sugar cane juice may be due to its inefficient conversion by plant metabolism in certain soil types and could explain the periodical episodes of D. bruxellensis colonization of Brazilian ethanol plants.

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Acknowledgments

The authors thank to Mr. Carlos Farias (distillery Miriri S.A.) for providing soil and cane juice analysis, Prof. Volkmar Passoth (Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences) and Dr. David Bousfield (Ganesha Associates, Cambridge UK) for their kind comments on the manuscript preparation and to the companies Genetech Bioprodutividade Ltd (Recife, Brazil), Japungu Agroindustrial S.A. (Santa Rita, Brazil) and Miriri S.A. (Santa Rita, Brazil) for their kind assistance with the industrial samples. This work was supported by grants and scholarships from the Brazilian funding agencies Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq), Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES) and Fundação de Amparo a Ciência e Tecnologia do Estado de Pernambuco (FACEPE).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Interdepartmental Research Group on Metabolic Engineering, Federal University of Pernambuco, Av Moraes Rego 1235, Recife, PE, 50670-901, Brazil

    Will de Barros Pita, Fernanda Cristina Bezerra Leite, Anna Theresa de Souza Liberal, Diogo Ardaillon Simões & Marcos Antonio de Morais Jr

  2. Department of Genetics, Federal University of Pernambuco, Av Moraes Rego 1235, Recife, PE, 50670-901, Brazil

    Marcos Antonio de Morais Jr

  3. Department of Biochemistry, Federal University of Pernambuco, Av Moraes Rego 1235, Recife, PE, 50670-901, Brazil

    Diogo Ardaillon Simões

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  1. Will de Barros Pita
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  2. Fernanda Cristina Bezerra Leite
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  3. Anna Theresa de Souza Liberal
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  4. Diogo Ardaillon Simões
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  5. Marcos Antonio de Morais Jr
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Correspondence to Marcos Antonio de Morais Jr.

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de Barros Pita, W., Leite, F.C.B., de Souza Liberal, A.T. et al. The ability to use nitrate confers advantage to Dekkera bruxellensis over S. cerevisiae and can explain its adaptation to industrial fermentation processes. Antonie van Leeuwenhoek 100, 99–107 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10482-011-9568-z

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