Cold Adapted Yeast

Most of the world's biodiversity lives in cold (-2° to 4°C) and hypersaline environments. To understand how cells adapt to such conditions, we isolated two key components of the transcription machinery from fungal species that live in extreme polar environments: the Ess1 prolyl isomerase and its target, the carboxy-terminal domain (CTD) of RNA polymerase II. Polar Ess1 enzymes are conserved and functional in the model yeast, Saccharomyces cerevisiae. By contrast, polar CTDs diverge from the consensus (YSPTSPS)26 and are not fully functional in S...

Apples are affected by numerous fungi known as storage rots, which cause significant losses before and after harvest. Concerns about increasing antimicrobial resistance, bans on various fungicides, and changing consumer preferences are motivating the search for safer means to prevent fruit rot. The use of antagonistic microbes has been shown to be an efficient and environmentally friendly alternative to conventional phytopharmaceuticals. Here, we investigate the potential of Aureobasidium subglaciale for postharvest rot control...

Antimicrobial resistance is an escalating health crisis requiring urgent action. Most antimicrobials are natural products (NPs) sourced from Actinomycetota, particularly the Streptomyces. Underexplored and extreme environments are predicted to harbour novel microorganisms with the capacity to synthesise unique metabolites. Herring Island is a barren and rocky cold desert in East Antarctica, remote from anthropogenic impact. We aimed to recover rare and cold-adapted NP-producing bacteria, by employing two culturing methods which mimic the natural environment: direct soil culturing and the soil substrate membrane system...

Potassium (K+ ) is one of the indispensable elements in plant growth and development. The Shaker K+ channel protein family is involved in plant K+ uptake and distribution. Foxtail millet ( Setaria italica ), as an important crop, has strong tolerance and adaptability to abiotic stresses. However, no systematic study focused on the Shaker K+ channel family in foxtail millet. Here, ten Shaker K+ channel genes in foxtail millet were identified and divided into five groups through phylogenetic analysis. Gene structures, chromosome locations, cis-acting regulatory elements in promoter, and post-translation modification sites of Shaker K+ channels were analyzed...

The plant family 1 UDP-glycosyltransferases (UGTs) are increasingly being investigated because of their contribution to plant secondary metabolism and other diverse biological roles. The apple (Malus domestica) is one of the most widely cultivated fruit trees with great economic importance. However, little is known regarding the apple UGTs. In this study, we identified 229 members of family 1 through a genome-wide analysis of the apple UGTs, which were clustered into 18 groups, from A to R. We also performed detailed analysis of 34 apple UGTs by quantitative RT-PCR, and discovered a number of stress-regulated UGTs...

Carotenoids are a group of versatile isoprenoid pigments widely utilized in the food, pharmaceutical and cosmetic industries. Rhodosporidiobolus colostri is a cold-adapted yeast that has piqued interest as a natural source of microbial carotenoids, including β-carotene, torulene and torularhodin. Here, the effect of low temperature on carotenoid production in R. colostri was investigated. The results indicated that the total carotenoid production was significantly increased at the low temperature (16 ℃) treatment (29...

Understanding of thermal adaptation mechanisms in yeast is crucial to develop better-adapted strains to industrial processes, providing more economical and sustainable products. We have analyzed the transcriptomic responses of three Saccharomyces cerevisiae strains, a commercial wine strain, ADY5, a laboratory strain, CEN.PK113-7D and a commercial bioethanol strain, Ethanol Red, grown at non-optimal temperatures under anaerobic chemostat conditions. Transcriptomic analysis of the three strains revealed a huge complexity of cellular mechanisms and responses...

The probiotic bacterium Lactobacillus plantarum is often reckoned as a 'generalist' for its ability to adapt and survive in diverse ecological niches. The genomic signatures of L. plantarum have shown its intricate evolutionary ancestry and dynamic lifestyles. Here, we report on a unique geometrical arrangement of the multicellular population of L. plantarum cells. Prominently, a phenomenon of the cone-shaped colony formation and V-shaped cell chaining are discovered in response to the acidic-pH environment...

Yeasts are microscopic fungi inhabiting all Earth environments, including those inhospitable for most life forms, considered extreme environments. According to their habitats, yeasts could be extremotolerant or extremophiles. Some are polyextremophiles, depending on their growth capacity, tolerance, and survival in the face of their habitat's physical and chemical constitution. The extreme yeasts are relevant for the industrial production of value-added compounds, such as biofuels, lipids, carotenoids, recombinant proteins, enzymes, among others...

For the first time, based on complex research, a zoo technical justification for the use of PS-2 and PS-4 biostimulators in the technology of calf raising in individual boxes and pavilions is given to activate the body's adaptogenesis to cold and implement the productive qualities of young stock during rearing and fattening in typical premises. Intramuscular injection of PS-2 (polysaccharide complex of yeast cells immobilized in an agar gel by adding a benzimidazole derivative) and PS-4 (similar to PS-2 plus antibiotic of the cephalosporin) to calves in a dose of 3 ml at 2-3 and 7-9 days of life stimulates their growth and development during the raising, rearing, and fattening periods, thereby reducing the incidence of diseases...

The contribution of cold-adapted yeasts to the emerging field of lignin biovalorization has not yet been studied. The red-pigmented basidiomycetous yeast strain Rhodosporidiobolus   colostri DBVPG 10655 was examined for its potential to degrade five selected lignin-derived aromatic monomers (syringic acid, p -coumaric acid, 4-hydroxybenzoic acid, ferulic acid, and vanillic acid). The strain utilized p -coumaric acid, 4-hydroxybenzoic acid, and ferulic acid not only as the sole carbon source; full biodegradation occurred also in mixtures of multiple monomers...

Aquaporins (AQPs) play important roles in plant growth, development and tolerance to environmental stresses. To understand the role of AQPs in mangrove plant Kandelia obovata, which has the ability to acquire water from seawater, we identified 34 AQPs in the K. obovata genome and analyzed their structural features. Phylogenetic analysis revealed that KoAQPs are homologous to AQPs of Populus and Arabidopsis, which are evolutionarily conserved. Key amino acid residues was used to assess water-transport ability...

The widespread awareness of polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) benefits for human health has increased the need for their commercial production. Two oleaginous yeast were isolated from the Mediterranean Sea fish and Red Sea fish Epinephelus aeneus and E. areolatus , respectively. These marine candidates were identified by MALDI-TOF/MS biotyper® as Lodderomyces elongisporus and Rhodotorula mucilaginosa . The effect of incubation temperature (7, 15, and 26 °C) and glucose concentration (3% and 8%) on their lipids content were investigated using Sulfo-Phospho-Vanillin (SPV) assay...

The induction of highly conserved heat shock protein 70 (HSP70) is often related to a cellular response due to harmful stress or adverse life conditions. In this study, we determined the expression of Hsp70 genes in the Antarctic yeast, Glaciozyma antarctica , under different several thermal treatments for several exposure periods. The main aims of the present study were (1) to determine if stress-induced Hsp70 could be used to monitor the exposure of the yeast species G. antarctica to various types of thermal stress; (2) to analyze the structures of the G...

Rhodosporidium kratochvilovae strain YM25235 is a cold-adapted oleaginous yeast strain that can grow at 15°C. It is capable of producing polyunsaturated fatty acids. Here, we used the Nanopore Platform to first assemble the R. kratochvilovae strain YM25235 genome into a 23.71 Mb size containing 46 scaffolds and 8,472 predicted genes. To explore the molecular mechanism behind the low temperature response of R. kratochvilovae strain YM25235, we analyzed the RNA transcriptomic data from low temperature (15°C) and normal temperature (30°C) groups using the next-generation deep sequencing technology (RNA-seq)...

CBFs belong to the ERF subfamily of the AP2 supergene family and often play an important role in the cold acclimation of temperate plants. However, the role of CBFs in Camellia japonica (Naidong), the only Camellia japonica population found in the temperate zones of China, remains unclear. It is very important to study the genetic composition of C. japonica (Naidong) to adapt to low temperature for Camellia species. Using full-length transcriptome data, we identified four CjCBF genes that respond to cold stress and analyzed their evolutionary relationships, domains, and expression patterns...

A central goal of evolutionary genetics is to understand, at the molecular level, how organisms adapt to their environments. For a given trait, the answer often involves the acquisition of variants at unlinked sites across the genome. Genomic methods have achieved landmark successes in pinpointing these adaptive loci. To figure out how a suite of adaptive alleles work together, and to what extent they can reconstitute the phenotype of interest, requires their transfer into an exogenous background. We studied the joint effect of adaptive, gain-of-function thermotolerance alleles at eight unlinked genes from Saccharomyces cerevisiae, when introduced into a thermosensitive sister species, S...

The basidiomycetous yeast, Glaciozyma antarctica , was isolated from various terrestrial materials collected from the Sôya coast, East Antarctica, and formed frost-columnar colonies on agar plates frozen at -1 °C. Thawed colonies were highly viscous, indicating that the yeast produced a large number of extracellular polysaccharides (EPS). G. antarctica was then cultured on frozen media containing red food coloring to observe the dynamics of solutes in unfrozen water; pigments accumulated in frozen yeast colonies, indicating that solutes were concentrated in unfrozen water of yeast colonies...

The novel extremophilic yeast Rhodotorula frigidialcoholis, formerly R. JG1b, was isolated from ice-cemented permafrost in University Valley (Antarctic), one of coldest and driest environments on Earth. Phenotypic and phylogenetic analyses classified R. frigidialcoholis as a novel species. To characterize its cold-adaptive strategies, we performed mRNA and sRNA transcriptomic analyses, phenotypic profiling, and assessed ethanol production at 0 and 23 °C. Downregulation of the ETC and citrate cycle genes, overexpression of fermentation and pentose phosphate pathways genes, growth without reduction of tetrazolium dye, and our discovery of ethanol production at 0 °C indicate that R...

Psychrophilic organisms possess several adaptive strategies which allow them to sustain life at low temperatures between -20 to 20 °C. Studies on Antarctic psychrophiles are interesting due to the multiple stressors that exist on the permanently cold continent. These organisms produce, among other peculiarities, cold-active enzymes which not only have tremendous biotechnological potential but are valuable models for fundamental research into protein structure and function. Recent innovations in omics technologies such as genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics and metabolomics have contributed a remarkable perspective of the molecular basis underpinning the mechanisms of cold adaptation...