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A Study on the Fundamental Mechanism and the Evolutionary Driving Forces behind Aerobic Fermentation in Yeast.

Hagman, Arne LU and Piskur, Jure LU (2015) In PLoS ONE 10(1).
Abstract
Baker's yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae rapidly converts sugars to ethanol and carbon dioxide at both anaerobic and aerobic conditions. The later phenomenon is called Crabtree effect and has been described in two forms, long-term and short-term effect. We have previously studied under fully controlled aerobic conditions forty yeast species for their central carbon metabolism and the presence of long-term Crabtree effect. We have also studied ten steady-state yeast cultures, pulsed them with glucose, and followed the central carbon metabolism and the appearance of ethanol at dynamic conditions. In this paper we analyzed those wet laboratory data to elucidate possible mechanisms that determine the fate of glucose in different yeast species... (More)
Baker's yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae rapidly converts sugars to ethanol and carbon dioxide at both anaerobic and aerobic conditions. The later phenomenon is called Crabtree effect and has been described in two forms, long-term and short-term effect. We have previously studied under fully controlled aerobic conditions forty yeast species for their central carbon metabolism and the presence of long-term Crabtree effect. We have also studied ten steady-state yeast cultures, pulsed them with glucose, and followed the central carbon metabolism and the appearance of ethanol at dynamic conditions. In this paper we analyzed those wet laboratory data to elucidate possible mechanisms that determine the fate of glucose in different yeast species that cover approximately 250 million years of evolutionary history. We determine overflow metabolism to be the fundamental mechanism behind both long- and short-term Crabtree effect, which originated approximately 125-150 million years ago in the Saccharomyces lineage. The "invention" of overflow metabolism was the first step in the evolution of aerobic fermentation in yeast. It provides a general strategy to increase energy production rates, which we show is positively correlated to growth. The "invention" of overflow has also simultaneously enabled rapid glucose consumption in yeast, which is a trait that could have been selected for, to "starve" competitors in nature. We also show that glucose repression of respiration is confined mainly among S. cerevisiae and closely related species that diverged after the whole genome duplication event, less than 100 million years ago. Thus, glucose repression of respiration was apparently "invented" as a second step to further increase overflow and ethanol production, to inhibit growth of other microbes. The driving force behind the initial evolutionary steps was most likely competition with other microbes to faster consume and convert sugar into biomass, in niches that were semi-anaerobic. (Less)
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author
and
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
in
PLoS ONE
volume
10
issue
1
article number
e0116942
publisher
Public Library of Science (PLoS)
external identifiers
  • pmid:25617754
  • wos:000350336000032
  • scopus:84922031918
  • pmid:25617754
ISSN
1932-6203
DOI
10.1371/journal.pone.0116942
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
4d9fa207-f88a-48b4-8551-83b0bc06a8c2 (old id 5039813)
date added to LUP
2016-04-01 13:04:18
date last changed
2024-02-24 18:06:44
@article{4d9fa207-f88a-48b4-8551-83b0bc06a8c2,
  abstract     = {{Baker's yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae rapidly converts sugars to ethanol and carbon dioxide at both anaerobic and aerobic conditions. The later phenomenon is called Crabtree effect and has been described in two forms, long-term and short-term effect. We have previously studied under fully controlled aerobic conditions forty yeast species for their central carbon metabolism and the presence of long-term Crabtree effect. We have also studied ten steady-state yeast cultures, pulsed them with glucose, and followed the central carbon metabolism and the appearance of ethanol at dynamic conditions. In this paper we analyzed those wet laboratory data to elucidate possible mechanisms that determine the fate of glucose in different yeast species that cover approximately 250 million years of evolutionary history. We determine overflow metabolism to be the fundamental mechanism behind both long- and short-term Crabtree effect, which originated approximately 125-150 million years ago in the Saccharomyces lineage. The "invention" of overflow metabolism was the first step in the evolution of aerobic fermentation in yeast. It provides a general strategy to increase energy production rates, which we show is positively correlated to growth. The "invention" of overflow has also simultaneously enabled rapid glucose consumption in yeast, which is a trait that could have been selected for, to "starve" competitors in nature. We also show that glucose repression of respiration is confined mainly among S. cerevisiae and closely related species that diverged after the whole genome duplication event, less than 100 million years ago. Thus, glucose repression of respiration was apparently "invented" as a second step to further increase overflow and ethanol production, to inhibit growth of other microbes. The driving force behind the initial evolutionary steps was most likely competition with other microbes to faster consume and convert sugar into biomass, in niches that were semi-anaerobic.}},
  author       = {{Hagman, Arne and Piskur, Jure}},
  issn         = {{1932-6203}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  number       = {{1}},
  publisher    = {{Public Library of Science (PLoS)}},
  series       = {{PLoS ONE}},
  title        = {{A Study on the Fundamental Mechanism and the Evolutionary Driving Forces behind Aerobic Fermentation in Yeast.}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0116942}},
  doi          = {{10.1371/journal.pone.0116942}},
  volume       = {{10}},
  year         = {{2015}},
}