Comparative lipidomics of four strains of Saccharomyces cerevisiae reveals different responses to furfural, phenol, and acetic acid.

To reveal differences between inhibitor-resistant Saccharomyces cerevisiae strains and their parental strain and to investigate the response of S. cerevisiae to furfural, phenol, and acetic acid, comparative lipidomics strategy was employed using an LC-ESI/MS(n) technique on four S. cerevisiae strains, which include an industrial strain (SC) and three tolerant strains screened by this laboratory by step adaptationa furfural-tolerant strain (SCF), a phenol-tolerant strain (SCP), and an acetic acid-tolerant strain (SCA). Lipidome data were then analyzed using wavelet transform-principal component analysis (WT-PCA). Results revealed that phosphatidylcholines (PCs), phosphatidylinositols (PIs), and phosphatidic acids (PAs) were biomarkers for discriminating SC from SCF, SCP, and SCA, respectively. PIs were believed to be extraordinarily important in all inhibitor-tolerant processes because they were the biomarkers responsible for the discrimination of all four different strains. Further analysis of the distribution of different hydrocarbon chains revealed that both the saturation and the length of the chains helped in maintaining proper fluidity of membranes.