The response of Saccharomyces cerevisiae to stress throughout a 15-day wine fermentation

We used genome-wide expression analyses to study the response of Saccharomyces cerevisiae to stress throughout a 15-day wine fermentation. Forty percent of the yeast genome significantly changed expression levels to mediate long-term adaptation to an environment in which ethanol is both a stressor and a carbon source. Within this set, we identify a group of 223 genes, designated as the Fermentation Stress Response (FSR), that are dramatically and permanently induced; FSR genes exhibited changes ranging from four-to eighty-fold. The FSR is novel; 62% of the genes involved have not been implicated in global stress responses and 28% of the genes have no functional annotation. Genes involved in respiratory metabolism and gluconeogenesis were expressed during fermentation despite the presence of high concentrations of glucose. Ethanol, rather than nutrient depletion, was responsible for entry of yeast cells into stationary phase. Ethanol seems to regulate yeast metabolism through hitherto undiscovered regulatory networks during wine fermentation.

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Marks VD, Ho Sui SJ, Erasmus D, van der Merwe GK, Brumm J, Wasserman WW, Bryan J, van Vuuren HJ