Growing Saccharomyces cerevisiae in calcium-alginate beads induces cell alterations which accelerate glucose conversion to ethanol.

Nongrowing Saccharomyces cerevisiae cells previously grown in alginate exhibit ethanol production rates 1.5 times greater than cells previously grown in suspension. Analysis of glucose, ethanol, and glycerol formation data using quasi-steady-state pathway stoichiometry shows that alginate-grown cells possess phosphofructokinase (PFK), ATPase, and polysaccharide synthesis maximum activities which are approximately two-, two-, and ninefold larger, respectively, than in suspension-grown cells. The estimated change in PFK maximum velocity is consistent with in vitro assays of PFK activity in extracts of suspension- and alginate-grown yeast. Estimation of ethanol production flux control coefficients using in vivo nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy measurements of intracellular metabolite concentrations and a previously proposed detailed kinetic model of ethanol fermentation in yeast shows that glucose uptake dominates flux control in alginate-grown cells in suspension while earlier research revealed that PFK and ATPase exert significant flux control in suspension-grown cells. When placed in a calcium alginate matrix, alginate-grown cells produced ethanol 1.8 times more rapidly and accumulated substantially more polyphosphate than suspension-grown cells placed in alginate. Cells growing in alginate elicit responses at the genetic level which substantially alter pathway rates and flux control when these cells are used as either a suspended or an immobilized biocatalyst. These responses in gene expression to growth in alginate serve to reconfigure flux controls in alginate to a pattern which is similar to that obtained for suspended-grown cells in suspension.