KlGcr1 controls glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase activity and responses to H2O2, cadmium and arsenate in Kluyveromyces lactis.

It has been previously reported that Gcr1 differentially controls growth and sugar utilization in Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Kluyveromyces lactis, although the regulatory mechanisms causing activation of glycolytic genes are conserved (Neil et al., 2004). We have found that KlGCR1 deletion diminishes glucose consumption and ethanol production, but increases resistance to oxidative stress caused by H2O2, cadmium and arsenate, glucose 6P dehydrogenase activity, and the NADPH/NADP(+) and GSH/GSSG ratios in K. lactis. The gene KlZWF1 that encodes for glucose 6P dehydrogenase, the first enzyme in the pentose phosphate pathway, is transcriptionally regulated by KlGcr1. The high resistance to oxidative stress observed in the ΔKlgcr1 mutant strain, could be explained as a consequence of an increased flux of glucose through the pentose phosphate pathway. Since mitochondrial respiration decreases in the ΔKlgcr1 mutant (García-Leiro et al., 2010), the reoxidation of the NADPH, produced through the pentose phosphate pathway, has to be achieved by the reduction of other molecules implied in the defense against oxidative stress, like GSSG. The higher GSH/GSSG ratio in the mutant would explain its phenotype of increased resistance to oxidative stress.