Membrane and Lipid Metabolism Plays an Important Role in Desiccation Resistance in the Yeast Saccharomyces Cerevisiae Qun Ren1, Rebecca Brenner1, Thomas C
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Ren et al. BMC Microbiology (2020) 20:338 https://doi.org/10.1186/s12866-020-02025-w RESEARCH ARTICLE Open Access Membrane and lipid metabolism plays an important role in desiccation resistance in the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae Qun Ren1, Rebecca Brenner1, Thomas C. Boothby2 and Zhaojie Zhang1* Abstract Background: Anhydrobiotes, such as the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae, are capable of surviving almost total loss of water. Desiccation tolerance requires an interplay of multiple events, including preserving the protein function and membrane integrity, preventing and mitigating oxidative stress, maintaining certain level of energy required for cellular activities in the desiccated state. Many of these crucial processes can be controlled and modulated at the level of organelle morphology and dynamics. However, little is understood about what organelle perturbations manifest in desiccation-sensitive cells as a consequence of drying or how this differs from organelle biology in desiccation-tolerant organisms undergoing anhydrobiosis. Results: In this study, electron and optical microscopy was used to examine the dynamic changes of yeast cells during the desiccation process. Dramatic structural changes were observed during the desiccation process, including the diminishing of vacuoles, decrease of lipid droplets, decrease in mitochondrial cristae and increase of ER membrane, which is likely caused by ER stress and unfolded protein response. The survival rate was significantly decreased in mutants that are defective in lipid droplet biosynthesis, or cells treated with cerulenin, an inhibitor of fatty acid synthesis. Conclusion: Our study suggests that the metabolism of lipid droplets and membrane may play an important role in yeast desiccation tolerance by providing cells with energy and possibly metabolic water. Additionally, the decrease in mitochondrial cristae coupled with a decrease in lipid droplets is indicative of a cellular response to reduce the production of reactive oxygen species. Keywords: Anhydrobiosis, Desiccation tolerance, Endoplasmic reticulum, Lipid droplets, Lipid metabolism, Mitochondria, Vacuole Background of time. Anhydrobiotes are widespread, having been Water is essential for all life and required for the major- found in the plant, animal (such as tardigrades and nem- ity of the biological processes. At cellular level, water atodes), fungal (such as the budding yeast Saccharomyces plays a pivotal role in proper protein folding and the as- cerevisiae and other non-conventional yeasts), and pro- sembly of phospholipids into biological membranes. karyotic kingdoms of life [1]. Studies have shown that Nevertheless, certain organisms called anhydrobiotes are many anhydrobiotes possess large quantities of non- capable of surviving extreme water loss for a long period reducing sugars (mostly disaccharides, such as trehalose) [2], intrinsically disordered proteins (IDPs) [3, 4] and * Correspondence: [email protected] heat shock proteins [5]. It is believed that these non- 1Department of Zoology and Physiology, University of Wyoming, 1000 E. University Ave, Laramie, WY 82071, USA reducing sugars and IDPs help stabilize and preserve Full list of author information is available at the end of the article both membrane and protein structure and therefore © The Author(s). 2020 Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated in a credit line to the data. Ren et al. BMC Microbiology (2020) 20:338 Page 2 of 13 mitigate the desiccation-induced stresses [6–9]. In bud- could also be vitrified, especially at low water content, ding yeast, dehydration causes dramatic structural forming glassy matrix to avoid the membrane phase changes to almost all major organelles [10–12]. Cell wall transition during dehydration [12, 22–24]. However, components were altered and branched mannoprotein protein misfolding has been observed in desiccated fibrils that are similar to flocculent yeast were observed yeast [5], suggesting that not all proteins, or mem- on the surface of the cell [13]. Plasma membrane invagi- brane are protected. It is unknown whether ‘essential’ nations occur in response to significant decrease of cell proteins and membrane structure (such as nuclear size [14]. Structural changes of the nuclear membrane membrane) are preferentially protected. and condensation of both nuclear and mitochondrial During the desiccation process, intracellular water is DNA has also been reported [13, 14]. Other significant still critical to maintain enzyme activities necessary to changes include vacuoles, lipid droplets and peroxisomes adapt to water loss. Enzyme activities were also observed [12]. Some of the changes are caused by oxidative stress in yeast during long-term desiccation (up to 180 days) during dehydration [15], when the oxidation level in- when trehalose is degraded by trehalases [5]. Little is creases significantly [16]. Multiple pathways have been known about how trehalases remain active in this highly evolved in yeast to mitigate the oxidative damages dehydrated state, suggesting that more mechanisms are caused by desiccation [15]. involved in response to desiccation stress and desicca- The desiccation tolerance of anhydrobiotes is typically tion tolerance. Not surprisingly, the necessity of several not innate, but acquired through some ‘low’ level stress mechanisms to confer desiccation tolerance has also that may or not be related to desiccation. For example, been reported in other systems [6]. in plants acquisition of desiccation tolerance is triggered In this study, transmission electron microscopy (TEM) by dehydration and an increase in the plant hormone was used to examine the ultrastructural changes of yeast abscisic acid [6, 17]. In tardigrade and Saccharomyces during the desiccation process. Because stationary cells cerevisiae, desiccation tolerance is induced by starvation are more desiccation tolerant than the log-phase cells, [4, 18]. Dividing yeast cells growing in glucose have a we speculated that the morphological and physiological minimum tolerance to desiccation [18]. Cells growing in changes of stationary cells, in particular, the increased ethanol-containing medium also has a decreased desic- endoplasmic membrane, decrease in vacuoles and mito- cation tolerance, possibly due to their high degree of un- chondria and modulation of lipid droplet number may saturated fatty acids [19]. Many other factors, such as, play an important role in desiccation tolerance of the cell growth phase, cell cycle stage, growth conditions, yeast. and conditions of dehydration-rehydration etc., also affect the desiccation tolerance. Starvation stress leads to Results significant physiological and morphological changes in Desiccation causes significant structural changes yeast, such as a reduced metabolic rate and thickened Desiccation causes cellular damages even in anhydro- cell wall that is more resistant to enzymatic digestion biotes [25]. In budding yeast, studies have shown that and more thermotolerant [20]. Interestingly, a similar desiccation causes changes of the cellular structure, such gene expression pattern to stationary yeast was identified as cell wall, plasma membrane, nucleus, vacuole, lipid in proliferating yeast that were treated with certain che- droplets, peroxisomes and mitochondria (for reviews, see micals, heat shock or irradiation [21], suggesting that [10–12]). Here, transmission electron microscopy (TEM) yeast may possess a universal response mechanism to was employed to examine and compare the ultrastruc- different environmental stresses. ture of desiccated yeast cells in log- (desiccation-sensi- In plants, the desiccation process starts with moder- tive) and stationary- (desiccation tolerant) phases. First, ate dehydration (initial loss of water) and precedes to we examined the desiccation progress of yeast cells in severe dehydration (loss of almost all water). In the the 15 ml glass tubes (see Method section for details). initial stage of dehydration, the cell volume decreases Cells in the tubes were weighted during the desiccation due to water loss, causing cytoplasmic components to process for weight loss, which was not observed 3.5 days become more crowded, which could cause protein de- (~ 80 h) after desiccation, indicating that cells were fully naturation and membrane fusion [6]. The protective desiccated after 3.5 days of desiccation. To check the disaccharides and other molecules accumulate and remaining amount of extracellular water, the 3.5-day- help forming a water shell around proteins and mem- desiccated cells were