Investigation of the significance of a carbon and redox balance to the measurement of gaseous metabolism of Saccharomyces cerevisiae

Application of bioenergetics to modelling the microbial conversion of D-xylose to 2,3-butanediol

During the oxygen limiting growth of Klebsiella oxytoca, the xylose metabolism may be considered as consisting of three components: conversion to 2,3-butanediol by "fermentation," oxidation to carbon dioxide by respiration, and assimilation to cell mass. The amount of energy required for the assimilation of cell mass is assumed to determine the extent to which the two energy producing reactions occur. The activity of each energy producing pathway is also determined by the availability of oxygen and by the energy yield of each pathway. These relationships can be quantified by equating the ATP required for growth and maintenance to the ATP produced by the energy producing reactions. The resulting equation for butanediol production appears similar to the Luedeking and Piret model where the parameters alpha and beta are related to the maximum cell yield from ATP and the maintenance energy requirement. These parameters were estimated from 14 batch fermentations, and the resulting simulation was used to describe the effects of the oxygen transfer rate and the initial xylose concentration on the yields and rates of the 2,3-butanediol fermentation.

Growth-limiting intracellular metabolites in yeast growing under diverse nutrient limitations

Microbes tailor their growth rate to nutrient availability. Here, we measured, using liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry, >100 intracellular metabolites in steady-state cultures of Saccharomyces cerevisiae growing at five different rates and in each of five different limiting nutrients. In contrast to gene transcripts, where approximately 25% correlated with growth rate irrespective of the nature of the limiting nutrient, metabolite concentrations were highly sensitive to the limiting nutrient's identity. Nitrogen (ammonium) and carbon (glucose) limitation were characterized by low intracellular amino acid and high nucleotide levels, whereas phosphorus (phosphate) limitation resulted in the converse. Low adenylate energy charge was found selectively in phosphorus limitation, suggesting the energy charge may actually measure phosphorus availability. Particularly strong concentration responses occurred in metabolites closely linked to the limiting nutrient, e.g., glutamine in nitrogen limitation, ATP in phosphorus limitation, and pyruvate in carbon limitation. A simple but physically realistic model involving the availability of these metabolites was adequate to account for cellular growth rate. The complete data can be accessed at the interactive website http://growthrate.princeton.edu/metabolome.