Growth characteristics of Saccharomyces cerevisiae S288C in changing environmental conditions: auxo-accelerostat study

Abstract

The effect of individual environmental conditions (pH, pO(2), temperature, salinity, concentration of ethanol, propanol, tryptone and yeast extract) on the specific growth rate as well as ethanol and glycerol production rate of Saccharomyces cerevisiae S288C was mapped during the fermentative growth in aerobic auxo-accelerostat cultures. The obtained steady-state values of the glycerol to ethanol formation ratio (0.1 mol mol(-1)) corresponding to those predicted from the stoichiometric model of fermentative yeast growth showed that the complete repression of respiration was obtained in auxostat culture and that the model is suitable for calculation of Y(ATP) and Q(ATP) values for the aerobic fermentative growth. Smooth decrease in the culture pH and dissolved oxygen concentration (pO2) down to the critical values of 2.3 and 0.8%, respectively, resulted in decrease in growth yield (Y(ATP)) and specific growth rate, however the specific ATP production rate (Q(ATP)) stayed almost constant. Increase in the concentration of biomass (>0.8 g dwt l(-1)), propanol (>2 g l(-1)) or NaCl (>15 g l(-1)) lead at first to the decrease in the specific growth rate and Q(ATP), while Y(ATP) was affected only at higher concentrations. The observed decrease in Q(ATP) was caused by indirect rather than direct inhibition of glycolysis. The increase in tryptone concentration resulted in an increase in the specific growth rate from 0.44 to 0.62 h(-1) and Y(ATP) from 12.5 to 18.5 mol ATP g dwt(-1). This study demonstrates that the auxo-accelerostat method, besides being an efficient tool for obtaining the culture characteristics, provides also decent conditions for the experiments elucidating the control mechanisms of cell growth.