Addition of ammonia or amino acids to a nitrogen-depleted medium affects gene expression patterns in yeast cells during alcoholic fermentation

Yeast cells require nitrogen and are capable of selectively using good nitrogen sources in preference to poor ones by means of the regulatory mechanism known as nitrogen catabolite repression (NCR). Herein, the effect of ammonia or amino acid addition to nitrogen-depleted medium on global yeast expression patterns in yeast cells was studied using alcoholic fermentation as a system. The results indicate that there is a differential reprogramming of the gene expression depending on the nitrogen source added. Ammonia addition resulted in a higher expression of genes involved in amino acids biosynthesis while amino acid addition prepares the cells for protein biosynthesis. Therefore, a high percentage of the genes regulated by the transcription factors involved in the regulation of amino acid biosynthesis are more expressed during the first hours after ammonia addition compared with amino acid addition. The opposite occurs for those genes regulated by the transcription factor Sfp1p, related to ribosome biosynthesis. Although both additions include rich nitrogen sources, most NCR-regulated genes are more expressed after adding ammonia than amino acids. One of the differentially expressed genes, YBR174W, is required for optimal growth in synthetic medium.

The nature of the nitrogen source added to nitrogen depleted vinifications conducted by a Saccharomyces cerevisiae strain in synthetic must affects gene expression and the levels of several volatile compounds

Nitrogen starvation may lead to stuck and sluggish fermentations. These undesirable situations result in wines with high residual sugar, longer vinification times, and risks of microbial contamination. The typical oenological method to prevent these problems is the early addition of ammonium salts to the grape juice, although excessive levels of these compounds may lead to negative consequences for the final product. This addition reduces the overall fermentation time, regardless of the time of addition, but the effect is more significant when nitrogen is added during the yeast exponential phase. In this work we analysed the effect of adding different nitrogen sources (ammonia, amino acids or a combination of both) under nitrogen depletion in order to understand yeast metabolic changes that lead to the adaptation to the new conditions. These studies were carried out in a synthetic must that mimics the composition of the natural must. Furthermore, we studied how this addition affects fermentative behaviour, the levels of several yeast volatile compounds in the final product, arginase activity, and the expression of several genes involved in stress response and nitrogen metabolism during vinification. We found that the nature of the nitrogen source added during yeast late exponential growth phase introduces changes to the volatile compounds profile and to the gene expression. On the other hand, arginase activity and the expression of the stress response gene ACA1 are useful to monitor nitrogen depletion/addition during growth of the wine yeast considered under our vinification conditions.

Study of the first hours of microvinification by the use of osmotic stress-response genes as probes

When yeast cells are inoculated into grape must for vinification they find stress conditions because of osmolarity, which is due to very high sugar concentration, and pH lower than 4. In this work an analysis of the expression of three osmotic stress induced genes (GPD1, HSP12 and HSP104) under microvinification conditions is shown as a way to probe those stress situations and the regulatory mechanisms that control them. The results indicate that during the first hours of microvinification there is an increase in the GPDI mRNA levels with a maximum about one hour after inoculation, and a decrease in the amount of HSP12 and HSP104 mRNAs, although with differences between them. The RNA steady-state levels of all the genes considered, and in some cases the microvinification progress are significantly affected by the composition of the must (pH, nature of the osmotic agent and carbon source). These results point out the importance of the control of these parameters and the yeast molecular response during the first hours of vinification for an accurate winemaking process.