Tolerant industrial yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae posses a more robust cell wall integrity signaling pathway against 2-furaldehyde and 5-(hydroxymethyl)-2-furaldehyde

Abstract Cell wall integrity signaling pathway in Saccharomyces cerevisiae is a conserved function for detecting and responding to cell stress conditions but less understood for industrial yeast. We examined gene expression dynamics for a tolerant industrial yeast strain NRRL Y-50049 in response to challenges of furfural and HMF through comparative quantitative gene expression analysis using pathway-based qRT-PCR array assays. All tested genes from Y-50049, except for MLP 2, demonstrated more resistant and significantly increased gene expression than that from a laboratory strain BY4741. While all five sensor encoding genes WSC 1 , WSC 2 , WSC 3 , MID 2 and MTL1 from both strains were activated in response to the furfural-HMF treatment, WSC 3 from Y-50049 demonstrated the most increased expression over time compared with any other sensor genes. These results suggested the industrial yeast poses more robust cell wall integrity pathway, and gene WSC 3 could have the special capability for signal transmission against furfural and HMF. Among five single nucleotide variations discovered in WSC 3 from Y-50049, three were found to be non-synonymous mutations resulting in amino acid alterations of Ser 158  → Tyr 158 , Val 186  → Ile 186 , and Glu 430  → Asp 430 . Our results suggest the industrial yeast as a more desirable delivery vehicle for the next-generation biocatalyst development.