Genome-wide identification of resistance genes and transcriptome regulation in yeast to accommodate ammonium toxicity.

BACKGROUND

Ammonium is an important raw material for biomolecules and life activities, and the toxicity of ammonium is also an important ecological and agricultural issue. Ammonium toxicity in yeast has only recently been discovered, and information on its mechanism is limited. In recent years, environmental pollution caused by nitrogen-containing wastewater has been increasing. In addition, the use of yeast in bioreactors to produce nitrogen-containing compounds has been developed. Therefore, research on resistance mechanisms that allow yeast to grow under conditions of high concentrations of ammonium has become more and more important.

RESULTS

To further understand the resistance mechanism of yeast to grow under high concentration of ammonium, we used NHCl to screen a yeast non-essential gene-deletion library. We identified 61 NHCl-sensitive deletion mutants from approximately 4200 mutants in the library, then 34 of them were confirmed by drop test analysis. Enrichment analysis of these 34 genes showed that biosynthesis metabolism, mitophagy, MAPK signaling, and other pathways may play important roles in NHCl resistance. Transcriptome analysis under NHCl stress revealed 451 significantly upregulated genes and 835 significantly downregulated genes. The genes are mainly enriched in: nitrogen compound metabolic process, cell wall, MAPK signaling pathway, mitophagy, and glycine, serine and threonine metabolism.

CONCLUSIONS

Our results present a broad view of biological pathways involved in the response to NHCl stress, and thereby advance our understanding of the resistance genes and cellular transcriptional regulation under high concentration of ammonium.