Engineering of membrane phospholipid component enhances salt stress tolerance in Saccharomyces cerevisiae

Abstract

To increase the growth of industrial strains under environmental stress, the Saccharomyces cerevisiae BY4741 salt-tolerant strain Y00 that tolerates 1.2 M NaCl was cultured through nitroguanidine mutagenesis. The metabolomics and transcription data of Y00 were compared with those of the wild-type strain BY4741. The comparison identified two genes related to salt stress tolerance, cds1 and cho1. Modular assembly of cds1 and cho1 redistributed the membrane phospholipid component and decreased the ratio of anionic-to-zwitterionic phospholipid in strain Y03 that showed the highest salt tolerance. Therefore, significantly increased membrane potential and membrane integrity helped strain Y03 to resist salt stress (1.2 M NaCl). This study provides an effective membrane engineering strategy to enhance salt stress tolerance.

The Plasma Membrane at the Cornerstone Between Flexibility and Adaptability: Implications for Saccharomyces cerevisiae as a Cell Factory

“…In S. cerevisiae , anionic phospholipids are mainly PA, PI, and PS, while zwitterionic phospholipids are PE and PC. These results indicate that a higher presence of zwitterionic phospholipids may be beneficial to deal with salt stress ( Yin et al, 2020 ).…”

“…These works highlight that different membrane compositions can be advantageous toward the same stress agent. In both works, Yin et al (2020) and Zhu et al (2020) , the levels of PS and PE were increased, 35.5% and 15, 25.2, and 18.9%, respectively. However, when ELO2 was overexpressed the levels of PC, PA, and PI did not change.…”

“…Similarly, Yin et al (2020) were able to increase the tolerance of S. cerevisiae to salt stress by significantly improving the yeast membrane potential and integrity. Using a nitroguanidine mutagenesis strategy, authors identified CDS1 , encoding a phosphatidate cytidylyltransferase, and CHO1 , encoding a phosphatidylserine (PS) synthase, as key factors to yeast tolerance toward salt stress.…”

Engineering membrane asymmetry to increase medium‐chain fatty acid tolerance in Saccharomyces cerevisiae

“…As a result, the engineered strain showed elevated MCFA stress tolerance and 41% higher octanoic acid production relative to those with the control (Z. Tan et al, 2016). (2) Phospholipid head groups can be modified by regulating phospholipid biosynthesis enzymes (Z. G. Tan et al, 2017; Yin et al, 2020). For example, the anionic to zwitterionic phospholipid ratio can be regulated by optimizing the expression of phosphatidylserine (PS) synthase Cho1‐ and CDP‐diglyceride synthetase Cds1.…”

“…For example, the anionic to zwitterionic phospholipid ratio can be regulated by optimizing the expression of phosphatidylserine (PS) synthase Cho1‐ and CDP‐diglyceride synthetase Cds1. Moreover, an engineered yeast strain showed a 14.2% increase in the final biomass compared with that of the control (Yin et al, 2020). (3) The membrane functions, including membrane integrity, membrane fluidity, and membrane permeability, can be regulated by engineering the membrane lipid profile (Z. Tan et al, 2017; G. Zhu et al, 2020) and transcriptional factors (Ling et al, 2015).…”