The flocculant Saccharomyces cerevisiae strain gains robustness via alteration of the cell wall hydrophobicity.

When lignocellulosic biomass is utilized as a fermentative substrate to produce biochemicals, the existence of a yeast strain resistant to inhibitory chemical compounds (ICCs) released from the biomass becomes critical. To achieve the purpose, in this study, Saccharomyces yeast strains from a NBRC yeast culture collection were used for exploration and evaluated in two different media containing ICCs that mimic one another but resemble the hydrolysate of real biomass. Among them, S. cerevisiae F118 strain shows robustness upon the fermentation with unique flocculation trait that was strongly responsive to ICC stress. When this strain was cultured in the presence of ICCs, its cell wall hydrophobicity increased dramatically, and reduced significantly when the ICCs were depleted, demonstrating that cell-surface hydrophobicity can also act as an adaptive response to the ICCs. Cells from the strain with the highest cell-wall hydrophobicity displayed progressively stronger flocculation, indicating that the F118 strain is having unique robustness under ICC stress. Gene expression perturbation analysis revealed that mot3 gene encoding regulatory Mot3p from the F118 strain was expressed in response to the concentration of ICCs. This gene was found to control expression of ygp1 gene that encoding Ygp1p, one of cell wall proteins. Deep sequencing analysis revealed that the Mot3p of the F118 strain features a unique insertion and deletion of nucleotides that encode glutamine or asparagine residues, particularly in N-terminal domain, as determined by comparison to the Mot3p sequence from the S288c strain, which was employed as a control strain. Furthermore, the cell wall hydrophobicity of the S288c strain was greatly enhanced and became ICC-responsive after gene swapping with the mot3 gene from the F118 strain. The gene-swapped S288c strain fermented 6-fold faster than the wild-type strain, producing 14.5 g/L of ethanol from 30 g/L of glucose consumed within 24 h in a medium containing the ICCs. These such modifications to Mot3p in unique locations in its sequence have a potential to change the expression of a gene involved in cell wall hydrophobicity and boosted the flocculation response to ICC stress, allowing for the acquisition of extraordinary robustness.

Effect of inoculum size on single-cell oil production from glucose and xylose using oleaginous yeast Lipomyces starkeyi.

Oleaginous microbes can convert substrates such as carbon dioxide, sugars, and organic acids to single-cell oils (SCOs). Among the oleaginous microorganisms, Lipomyces starkeyi is a particularly well-suited host given its impressive native abilities, including the capability to utilize a wide variety of carbon sources. In this work, the potential of L. starkeyi NBRC10381 to produce SCOs in a synthetically nitrogen-limited mineral medium (-NMM) was investigated by differing the inoculum size using glucose and/or xylose as a carbon source. Fermentation using glucose and xylose as mixed carbon sources generated the highest production of biomass at 40.8 g/L, and achieved a lipid content of 84.9% (w/w). When either glucose or xylose was used separately, the totals for achieved lipid content were 79.6% (w/w) and 85.1% (w/w), respectively. However, biomass production was higher for glucose than for xylose (30.3 vs. 28.7 g/L, respectively). This study describes the first simultaneous achievement of higher levels of cell mass and lipid production using glucose and/or xylose as the carbon sources in different inoculum sizes.

Challenges of non-flocculating Saccharomyces cerevisiae haploid strain against inhibitory chemical complex for ethanol production.

This study provides insight observation based on the gene expression and the metabolomic analysis of the natural robust yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae NBRC849 during the fermentation in the medium containing inhibitory chemical complexes (ICC) at different concentrations. The tolerance mechanisms involved in the strain might have existed through the upregulation of genes involved in NAD(H)/NADP(H) cofactors generations (ALD6, ZWF1, GND1), membrane robustness for efflux pump (YOR1, PDR5, TPO3) and cation/polyamine transport (TPO3). The alteration of metabolic flux to the shikimic pathway was also found in this strain, resulted in the enhanced formation of aromatic amino acid required for cell survival. Enhanced expression of these genes as well as the increase of metabolic flux to shikimic pathway were suggested to result in the robustness of non-flocculating S. cerevisiae haploid strain.

Mannan endo-1,4-ß-mannosidase from Kitasatospora sp. isolated in Indonesia and its potential for production of mannooligosaccharides from mannan polymers.

Mannan endo-1,4-ß-mannosidase (commonly known as ß-mannanase) catalyzes a random cleavage of the ß-D-1,4-mannopyranosyl linkage in mannan polymers. The enzyme has been utilized in biofuel production from lignocellulose biomass, as well as in production of mannooligosaccharides (MOS) for applications in feed and food industries. We aimed to obtain a ß-mannanase, for such mannan polymer utilization, from actinomycetes strains isolated in Indonesia. Strains exhibiting high mannanase activity were screened, and one strain belonging to the genus Kitasatospora was selected. We obtained a ß-mannanase from this strain, and an amino acid sequence of this Kitasatospora ß-mannanase showed a 58-71% similarity with the amino acid sequences of Streptomyces ß-mannanases. The Kitasatospora ß-mannanase showed a significant level of activity (944 U/mg) against locust bean gum (0.5% w/v) and a potential for oligosaccharide production from various mannan polymers. The ß-mannanase might be beneficial particularly in the enzymatic production of MOS for applications of mannan utilization.