Molecular and physiological basis of Saccharomyces cerevisiae tolerance to adverse lignocellulose-based process conditions

• Published in: Applied microbiology and biotechnology Vol. 103; no. 1; pp. 159 - 175
• Main Authors: Cunha, Joana T., Romaní, Aloia, Costa, Carlos E., Sá-Correia, Isabel, Domingues, Lucília
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Berlin/Heidelberg Springer Nature 01.01.2019; Springer Berlin Heidelberg; Springer; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Baking yeast; Bioconversion; Biomass; Biomass energy; Biomedical and Life Sciences; Biorefineries; Biotechnology; Cellulose; cerevisiae; Decoding; Ethanol; Fermentation; Furans; High temperature; Inhibitors; Inhibitory compounds; Life Sciences; Lignin; Lignocellulose; Lignocellulosic biomass; Metabolic engineering; Microbial Genetics and Genomics; Microbiology; Microorganisms; Mini-Review; Pentose; Pesticides; Phenols; Physiological aspects; Pretreatment; Production processes; Refineries; Refining; Resultants; S. cerevisiae; Saccharification; Saccharomyces cerevisiae; Science & Technology; Stress response mechanisms; Stresses; Sugar; Sustainable development; Synergistic effect; Xylose; Yeast; Yeasts; Stress response mechanisms; Metabolic engineering; Inhibitory compounds; Lignocellulosic biomass; S. cerevisiae
• ISSN: 0175-7598; 1432-0614
• DOI: 10.1007/s00253-018-9478-3

Lignocellulose-based biorefineries have been gaining increasing attention to substitute current petroleum-based refineries. Biomass processing requires a pretreatment step to break lignocellulosic biomass recalcitrant structure, which results in the release of a broad range of microbial inhibitors, mainly weak acids, furans, and phenolic compounds. Saccharomyces cerevisiae is the most commonly used organism for ethanol production; however, it can be severely distressed by these lignocellulose-derived inhibitors, in addition to other challenging conditions, such as pentose sugar utilization and the high temperatures required for an efficient simultaneous saccharification and fermentation step. Therefore, a better understanding of the yeast response and adaptation towards the presence of these multiple stresses is of crucial importance to design strategies to improve yeast robustness and bioconversion capacity from lignocellulosic biomass. This review includes an overview of the main inhibitors derived from diverse raw material resultants from different biomass pretreatments, and describes the main mechanisms of yeast response to their presence, as well as to the presence of stresses imposed by xylose utilization and high-temperature conditions, with a special emphasis on the synergistic effect of multiple inhibitors/stressors. Furthermore, successful cases of tolerance improvement of S. cerevisiae are highlighted, in particular those associated with other process-related physiologically relevant conditions. Decoding the overall yeast response mechanisms will pave the way for the integrated development of sustainable yeast cell--based biorefineries. This study was supported by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) by the strategic funding of UID/BIO/04469/2013 unit, MIT Portugal Program (Ph.D. grant PD/BD/128247/ 2016 to Joana T. Cunha), Ph.D. grant SFRH/BD/130739/2017 to Carlos E. Costa, COMPETE 2020 (POCI-01-0145-FEDER-006684), BioTecNorte operation (NORTE-01-0145-FEDER-000004), YeasTempTation (ERA-IB-2-6/0001/2014), and MultiBiorefinery project (POCI-01-0145-FEDER-016403). Funding by the Institute for Bioengineering and Biosciences (IBB) from FCT (UID/BIO/04565/2013) and from Programa Operacional Regional de Lisboa 2020 (Project N. 007317) was also receive