Journal of Fungi Article The Identification of Genetic Determinants of Methanol Tolerance in Yeast Suggests Differences in Methanol and Ethanol Toxicity Mechanisms and Candidates for Improved Methanol Tolerance Engineering Marta N. Mota 1,2, Luís C. Martins 1,2 and Isabel Sá-Correia 1,2,* 1 iBB—Institute for Bioengineering and Biosciences, Instituto Superior Técnico, Universidade de Lisboa, 1049-001 Lisbon, Portugal;
[email protected] (M.N.M.);
[email protected] (L.C.M.) 2 Department of Bioengineering, Instituto Superior Técnico, Universidade de Lisboa, 1049-001 Lisbon, Portugal * Correspondence:
[email protected] Abstract: Methanol is a promising feedstock for metabolically competent yeast strains-based biore- fineries. However, methanol toxicity can limit the productivity of these bioprocesses. Therefore, the identification of genes whose expression is required for maximum methanol tolerance is important for mechanistic insights and rational genomic manipulation to obtain more robust methylotrophic yeast strains. The present chemogenomic analysis was performed with this objective based on the screening of the Euroscarf Saccharomyces cerevisiae haploid deletion mutant collection to search for susceptibility ◦ phenotypes in YPD medium supplemented with 8% (v/v) methanol, at 35 C, compared with an equivalent ethanol concentration (5.5% (v/v)). Around 400 methanol tolerance determinants were Citation: Mota, M.N.; Martins, L.C.; identified, 81 showing a marked phenotype. The clustering of the identified tolerance genes indicates Sá-Correia, I. The Identification of an enrichment of functional categories in the methanol dataset not enriched in the ethanol dataset, Genetic Determinants of Methanol Tolerance in Yeast Suggests such as chromatin remodeling, DNA repair and fatty acid biosynthesis.