Nonlethal Furfural Exposure Causes Genomic Alterations and Adaptability Evolution in Saccharomyces cerevisiae

Abstract

Industrial microorganisms are often exposed to multiple environmental stressors and inhibitors during their application. This study demonstrates that nonlethal concentrations of furfural in the culture medium can significantly induce genome instability in the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae .

Improving furfural tolerance in a xylose-fermenting yeast Spathaspora passalidarum CMUWF1–2 via adaptive laboratory evolution

“…As we known that FF can induces random mutations in yeast genomes [ 15 , 21 ] and causes genetic alterations [ 22 , 23 ]. FF might induce the mutations that affect the expression of genes related to the ethanol tolerance expression such as the vacuolar H + -ATPase and the plasma membrane H + -ATPase genes, which involved in reducing cytosolic acidification in yeast cells [ 50 , 54 ], the heat shock proteins (HSPs) genes and trehalose metabolic enzyme genes, which played an important role in protecting protein structure denaturation from high concentration of ethanol [ 55 – 57 ] and PUT4 genes encoding a high-affinity proline transporter, which increased proline uptake due to proline was able to protective effect against ethanol stress by reducing the ROS levels and increasing the survival rate of yeast cells [ 58 , 59 ].…”

“…In the case of S. cerevisiae treated with furfural, whole-genome single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) microarray and sequencing showed varying levels of genetic alteration, including single-base substitutions, loss of heterozygosity, and chromosomal rearrangements leading to aneuploidy [ 22 ]. In another study, yeast cells cultured in medium containing a nonlethal dose of 0.6 g/l furfural exhibited aneuploidy, chromosomal rearrangements (including large deletions and duplications), and loss of heterozygosity (LOH) [ 23 ].…”