Can yeast cells sense other yeasts beyond competition interactions?
Abstract
The utilization of non-Saccharomyces yeasts in the wine industry has increased significantly in recent years. Alternative species need commonly be employed in combination with Saccharomyces cerevisiae to avoid stuck fermentation, or microbial spoilage. The employment of more than one yeast starter can lead to interactions between different species with an impact on the outcome of wine fermentation. Previous studies[1] demonstrated that S. cerevisiae elicits transcriptional responses with both shared and species-specific features in co-culture with other yeast species. We tested the hypothesis that extracellular vesicles (EVs) play a role as mediators in these interactions. For this purpose, we exposed S. cerevisiae cultures to EVs from Metschnikowia pulcherrima. Through RNAseq, we evaluated the impact of these EVs on the physiology of S. cerevisiae, comparing the results with the response of S. cerevisiae to metabolically active M. pulcherrima cells under identical conditions. The analysis revealed a significant overlap in the transcriptional responses induced in S. cerevisiae by both M. pulcherrima cells and EVs. Notably, both stimuli upregulated the genes related to glycolysis and ribosomal activity, while repressing autophagic genes. These findings provide evidence that S. cerevisiae actively responds to competing species under conditions resembling those found in winemaking. Furthermore, it offers experimental support for the hypothesis that EVs take part in interspecies recognition.
Acknowledgements: This work was funded by the Spanish Government through grant PID2019-105159RB-I00 funded by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033, grant BES-2016-077557, and grant PRE2020-093420 funded by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033 and by “ESF Investing in your future” (training contracts for AM and MM).
References:
1) Curiel, J.A., Morales, P., Gonzalez, R., Tronchoni, J., 2017. Different non-Saccharomyces yeast species stimulate nutrient consumption in S. cerevisiae mixed cultures. Front. Microbiol. 8, 2121. https://doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2017.02121.
DOI:
Issue: ICGWS 2023
Type: Article
Authors
1Instituto de Ciencias de la Vid y del Vino (CSIC, Gobierno de la Rioja, Universidad de La Rioja), Logroño, La Rioja, Spain
2Universidad Internacional de Valencia, Valencia, Spain