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Transcriptome analysis identifies genes involved in ethanol response of Saccharomyces cerevisiae in Agave tequilana juice

Antonie van Leeuwenhoek volume 102, pages 247–255 (2012)Cite this article

Abstract

During ethanol fermentation, yeast cells are exposed to stress due to the accumulation of ethanol, cell growth is altered and the output of the target product is reduced. For Agave beverages, like tequila, no reports have been published on the global gene expression under ethanol stress. In this work, we used microarray analysis to identify Saccharomyces cerevisiae genes involved in the ethanol response. Gene expression of a tequila yeast strain of S. cerevisiae (AR5) was explored by comparing global gene expression with that of laboratory strain S288C, both after ethanol exposure. Additionally, we used two different culture conditions, cells grown in Agave tequilana juice as a natural fermentation media or grown in yeast-extract peptone dextrose as artificial media. Of the 6368 S. cerevisiae genes in the microarray, 657 genes were identified that had different expression responses to ethanol stress due to strain and/or media. A cluster of 28 genes was found over-expressed specifically in the AR5 tequila strain that could be involved in the adaptation to tequila yeast fermentation, 14 of which are unknown such as yor343c, ylr162w, ygr182c, ymr265c, yer053c-a or ydr415c. These could be the most suitable genes for transforming tequila yeast to increase ethanol tolerance in the tequila fermentation process. Other genes involved in response to stress (RFC4, TSA1, MLH1, PAU3, RAD53) or transport (CYB2, TIP20, QCR9) were expressed in the same cluster. Unknown genes could be good candidates for the development of recombinant yeasts with ethanol tolerance for use in industrial tequila fermentation.

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Abbreviations

YPD:

Yeast peptone dextrose

ATJ:

Agave tequilana juice

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Acknowledgments

John Dye of Peace Corps México assisted with the revision of the article.

Conflict of interests

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

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Affiliations

  1. Medical and Pharmaceutical Biotechnology Unit, Centro de Investigación y Asistencia en Tecnología y Diseño del Estado de Jalisco (CIATEJ), Av. Normalistas No. 800, Col. Colinas de la Normal, 44270, Guadalajara, JAL, Mexico

    Jesús Ramirez-Córdova, Jaime Alberto Madrigal-Pulido, Kirk Allen, Moisés Martínez-Velázquez & Ikuri Alvarez-Maya

  2. The Roy J. Carver Biotechnology Center, University of Illinois, Urbana, IL, 61801, USA

    Jenny Drnevich

  3. Industrial Biotechnology Unit, CIATEJ, Guadalajara, JAL, Mexico

    Javier Arrizon

Authors
  1. Jesús Ramirez-Córdova
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  2. Jenny Drnevich
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  3. Jaime Alberto Madrigal-Pulido
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  4. Javier Arrizon
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  5. Kirk Allen
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  6. Moisés Martínez-Velázquez
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  7. Ikuri Alvarez-Maya
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Correspondence to Ikuri Alvarez-Maya.

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Ramirez-Córdova, J., Drnevich, J., Madrigal-Pulido, J.A. et al. Transcriptome analysis identifies genes involved in ethanol response of Saccharomyces cerevisiae in Agave tequilana juice. Antonie van Leeuwenhoek 102, 247–255 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10482-012-9733-z

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Keywords

  • Saccharomyces cerevisiae
  • Agave tequilana
  • Ethanol stress
  • DNA microarray
  • Gene expression