Distribution of the trehalase activation response and the regulatory trehalase gene among yeast species.

In Saccharomyces cerevisiae and other yeasts the activity of regulatory trehalases increases in response to the addition of glucose and to thermal changes in the extracellular medium. We have performed an screening on the extent of this response among different representative yeast species and the results show that this ability is displayed only by a few members of the Saccharomycetaceae family. However, all yeasts examined contain a gene related to that coding for regulatory trehalase in S. cerevisiae. This finding reveals that the operational distinction between regulatory and nonregulatory trehalase in yeasts is not a property of the enzyme by itself but relays on the expression of accompanying mechanisms able to modulate trehalase activity.