Abstract
The budding yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae is a platform organism for bioethanol production from various feedstocks and robust strains are desirable for efficient fermentation because yeast cells inevitably encounter stressors during the process. Recently, diverse S. cerevisiae lineages were identified, which provided novel resources for understanding stress tolerance variations and related shaping factors in the yeast. This study characterized the tolerance of diverse S. cerevisiae strains to the stressors of high ethanol concentrations, temperature shocks, and osmotic stress. The results showed that the isolates from human-associated environments overall presented a higher level of stress tolerance compared with those from forests spared anthropogenic influences. Statistical analyses indicated that the variations of stress tolerance were significantly correlated with both ecological sources and geographical locations of the strains. This study provides guidelines for selection of robust S. cerevisiae strains for bioethanol production from nature.
Highlights
The budding yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae is a vitally important microorganism for human being, which has been instrumental to baking, brewing, distilling, and wine making since ancient times [1]
Considering that high ethanol concentrations, temperature shocks, and osmotic stress are the most common stressors during ethanol fermentation, we evaluated the tolerance of S. cerevisiae strains to these stressors
We compared the stress tolerance of diverse S. cerevisiae strains and estimated the influence of ecology and geography on variations of stress tolerance in the yeast. Both ecological sources and geographical locations presented significant correlations with variations of stress tolerance, which might be explained by the influence of human activities on the evolutionary history of S. cerevisiae
Summary
The budding yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae is a vitally important microorganism for human being, which has been instrumental to baking, brewing, distilling, and wine making since ancient times [1]. S. cerevisiae has been used as a platform organism for production of bioethanol from various biomass feedstocks, such as corn starch, sugarcane, and lignocellulose [2,3]. Regardless of what kind of biomass feedstock is used, stressors inhibiting yeast growth and fermentation are generated during fermentation processes. Strains of S. cerevisiae resistant to such stressors are desirable for bioethanol production [6]. The yeast S. cerevisiae is among the most thoroughly studied eukaryotic model organisms at the cellular, molecular, and genetic levels. The ecology of S. cerevisiae has not PLOS ONE | DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0133889. The ecology of S. cerevisiae has not PLOS ONE | DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0133889 August 5, 2015
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