Two mitochondrial alcohol dehydrogenase activities of Kluyveromyces lactis are differently expressed during respiration and fermentation.

The lactose-utilizing yeast Kluyveromyces lactis is an essentially aerobic organism in which both respiration and fermentation can coexist depending on the sugar concentration. Despite a low fermentative capacity as compared to Saccharomyces cerevisiae, four structural genes encoding alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH) activities are present in this yeast. Two of these activities, namely K1ADH III and K1ADH IV, are located within mitochondria and their presence is dependent on the carbon sources in the medium. In this paper we demonstrate by transcription and activity analysis that KlADH3 is expressed in the presence of low glucose concentrations and in the presence of respiratory carbon sources other than ethanol. Indeed ethanol acts as a strong repressor of this gene. On the other hand, KlADH4 is induced by the presence of ethanol and not by other respiratory carbon sources. We also demonstrate that the presence of KLADH III and KLADH IV in K. lactis cells is dependent on glucose concentration, glucose uptake and the amount of ethanol produced. As a consequence, these activities can be used as markers for the onset of respiratory and fermentative metabolism in this yeast.