Engineering of membrane phospholipid component enhances salt stress tolerance in Saccharomyces cerevisiae.

To increase the growth of industrial strains under environmental stress, the Saccharomyces cerevisiae BY4741 salt-tolerant strain Y00 that tolerates 1.2 M NaCl was cultured through nitroguanidine mutagenesis. The metabolomics and transcription data of Y00 were compared with those of the wild-type strain BY4741. The comparison identified two genes related to salt stress tolerance, cds1 and cho1. Modular assembly of cds1 and cho1 redistributed the membrane phospholipid component and decreased the ratio of anionic-to-zwitterionic phospholipid in strain Y03 that showed the highest salt tolerance. Therefore, significantly increased membrane potential and membrane integrity helped strain Y03 to resist salt stress (1.2 M NaCl). This study provides an effective membrane engineering strategy to enhance salt stress tolerance.