The oleaginous yeast Starmerella bombicola reveals limitations of Saccharomyces cerevisiae as a model for fatty acid transport studies

Saccharomyces cerevisiae is the model organism to most yeast researchers, and information obtained from its physiology is generally extrapolated to other yeasts. Studies on fatty acid transport in S. cerevisiae are based on the expression of both native fatty acid export genes as well as heterologou...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:FEMS yeast research 2022-11, Vol.22 (1)
Main Authors: Salvador Lopez, Jose Manuel, Jezierska, Sylwia, Ekim Kocabey, Aslihan, Lee, Jungho, Schneiter, Roger, Van Bogaert, Inge N A
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Biological Transport
Fatty Acids - metabolism
Humans
Saccharomyces cerevisiae - genetics
Saccharomyces cerevisiae - metabolism
Saccharomycetales - genetics
Saccharomycetales - metabolism
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Saccharomyces cerevisiae is the model organism to most yeast researchers, and information obtained from its physiology is generally extrapolated to other yeasts. Studies on fatty acid transport in S. cerevisiae are based on the expression of both native fatty acid export genes as well as heterologous proteins. Starmerella bombicola, on the other hand, is an oleaginous yeast of industrial relevance but its fatty acid transport mechanisms are unknown. In this study, we attempt to use existing knowledge from S. cerevisiae to study fatty acid transport in S. bombicola, but the obtained results differ from those observed in S. cerevisiae. First, we observed that deletion of SbPRY1 in S. bombicola leads to higher fatty acid export, the opposite effect to the one previously observed for the Pry homologues in S. cerevisiae. Second, following reports that human FATP1 could export fatty acids and alcohols in S. cerevisiae, we expressed FATP1 in a fatty acid-accumulating S. bombicola strain. However, FATP1 reduced fatty acid export in S. bombicola, most likely due to its acyl-CoA synthetase activity. These results not only advance knowledge on fatty acid physiology of S. bombicola, but also improve our understanding of S. cerevisiae and its limitations as a model organism.
ISSN:1567-1364
1567-1364
DOI:10.1093/femsyr/foac054