A proposal for nomenclature of aldehyde dehydrogenases inSaccharomyces cerevisiae and characterization of the stress-inducibleALD2 andALD3 genes

Abstract

The complete sequencing of the genome of Saccharomyces cerevisiae indicated that this organism contains five genes encoding aldehyde dehydrogenases. YOR374w and YER073w correspond to the mitochondrial isoforms and we propose as gene names ALD4 and ALD5, respectively. YPL061w has been described as the cytoplasmic constitutive isoform and named ALD6. We characterize here the tandem‐repeated ORFs YMR170c and YMR169c as the cytoplasmic stress‐inducible isoforms, with gene names ALD2 and ALD3, respectively. The expression of ALD2 and ALD3 is dependent on the general‐stress transcription factors Msn2,4 but independent of the HOG MAP kinase pathway. ALD3 is induced by a variety of stresses, including osmotic shock, heat shock, glucose exhaustion, oxidative stress and drugs. ALD2 is only induced by osmotic stress and glucose exhaustion. A double null mutant, ald2 ald3, exhibited unchanged sensitivity to any of the above stresses. The only phenotype detected in this mutant was a reduced growth rate in ethanol medium as compared to the wild type. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Response to acetaldehyde stress in the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae involves a strain‐dependent regulation of several ALD genes and is mediatedby the general stress response pathway

“…This probably correlates to these genes involvement in stress response (Navarro-Aviño et al, 1999). For the same reason, when yeast cells are grown with glucose as carbon source, the sudden addition of acetaldehyde causes a certain induction of ALD2/3 expression in all the strains.…”

“…This induction disappeared totally in the double mutant msn2/msn4, indicating that the same regulation mechanisms triggered by other stress conditions (Navarro-Aviño et al, 1999) are also relevant to acetaldehyde stress. The results obtained with the bcy1 mutant are in accordance with this data.…”

“…We considered HSP26 because this gene contains STREs and also HSE and is induced by several stress conditions (Amorós and Estruch, 2001), including acetaldehyde stress (Aranda et al, 2002). ALD2/3 and ALD4 were analysed because previous reports had also demonstrated their induction by other forms of stress (Navarro-Aviño et al, 1999;De Risi et al, 1997;Boy-Marcotte et al, 1998). Moreover, we have identified putative STRE elements in the promoter of these genes (data not shown).…”

“…ALD2 and ALD3 are induced by several forms of stress in a way dependent on Msn2/4p transcription factors (Navarro-Aviño et al, 1999). Global analyses have indicated that ALD4 is induced at the diauxic shift (De Risi et al, 1997), as is the case for ALD5 (Boy-Marcotte et al, 1998).…”

Decreasing acetic acid accumulation by a glycerol overproducing strain of Saccharomyces cerevisiae by deleting the ALD6 aldehyde dehydrogenase gene

“…The biosynthesis of acetic acid by the oxidation of acetaldehyde is catalysed by aldehyde dehydrogenases (AlDHs). Five genes encoding AlDH have been identified in the S. cerevisiae genome (Cherry et al, 1999;Navarro-Aviñ o et al, 1999). These genes have a role in the generation of acetyl-CoA from acetaldehyde, the metabolism of toxic aldehydes and the balance of cellular redox potential.…”