Inheritance of Brewing-Relevant Phenotypes in Constructed Saccharomyces Cerevisiae × Saccharomyces Eubayanus Hybrids
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Krogerus et al. Microb Cell Fact (2017) 16:66 DOI 10.1186/s12934-017-0679-8 Microbial Cell Factories RESEARCH Open Access Inheritance of brewing‑relevant phenotypes in constructed Saccharomyces cerevisiae Saccharomyces eubayanus hybrids Kristofer Krogerus1,2* ×, Tuulikki Seppänen‑Laakso1, Sandra Castillo1 and Brian Gibson1 Abstract Background: Interspecifc hybridization has proven to be a potentially valuable technique for generating de novo lager yeast strains that possess diverse and improved traits compared to their parent strains. To further enhance the value of hybridization for strain development, it would be desirable to combine phenotypic traits from more than two parent strains, as well as remove unwanted traits from hybrids. One such trait, that has limited the industrial use of de novo lager yeast hybrids, is their inherent tendency to produce phenolic of-favours; an undesirable trait inher‑ ited from the Saccharomyces eubayanus parent. Trait removal and the addition of traits from a third strain could be achieved through sporulation and meiotic recombination or further mating. However, interspecies hybrids tend to be sterile, which impedes this opportunity. Results: Here we generated a set of fve hybrids from three diferent parent strains, two of which contained DNA from all three parent strains. These hybrids were constructed with fertile allotetraploid intermediates, which were capable of efcient sporulation. We used these eight brewing strains to examine two brewing-relevant phenotypes: stress tolerance and phenolic of-favour formation. Lipidomics and multivariate analysis revealed links between several lipid species and the ability to ferment in low temperatures and high ethanol concentrations. Unsaturated fatty acids, such as oleic acid, and ergosterol were shown to positively infuence growth at high ethanol concentra‑ tions. The ability to produce phenolic of-favours was also successfully removed from one of the hybrids, Hybrid T2, through meiotic segregation. The potential application of these strains in industrial fermentations was demonstrated in wort fermentations, which revealed that the meiotic segregant Hybrid T2 not only didn’t produce any phenolic of- favours, but also reached the highest ethanol concentration and consumed the most maltotriose. Conclusions: Our study demonstrates the possibility of constructing complex yeast hybrids that possess traits that are relevant to industrial lager beer fermentation and that are derived from several parent strains. Yeast lipid composi‑ tion was also shown to have a central role in determining ethanol and cold tolerance in brewing strains. Keywords: Yeast, Beer, Rare mating, Lipid, Fatty acid, Phenolic of-favour, Aroma Background production. It possesses a range of desirable phenotypes Yeast hybrids have been extensively used for centuries that are relevant for the production of lager beer: cold in the brewing and winemaking industries [1]. Lager tolerance, efcient use of wort sugars, and low formation yeast in particular, a natural interspecies hybrid between of undesirable of-favours. Recent studies have revealed Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Saccharomyces eubay- that generating new lager yeast hybrids is a powerful anus, is used for the majority of global industrial beer strain-development tool, as hybrid strains have exhibited various improved traits including faster fermentation *Correspondence: [email protected] rates, more complete sugar use, and increases in aroma 1 VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland, Tietotie 2, P.O. Box 1000, compound production [2–4]. Hybridization enables the 02044 Espoo, Finland combination and enhancement of phenotypic features Full list of author information is available at the end of the article © The Author(s) 2017. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. 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. Krogerus et al. Microb Cell Fact (2017) 16:66 Page 2 of 22 from two diferent parent strains [5]. In order to further tolerance [25–27]. Te fuidity of the plasma membrane improve the potential of hybridization for strain develop- is afected by its lipid composition and the temperature ment, it would be desirable to combine phenotypic traits [26, 28], and a decrease in membrane fuidity caused by from more than two parent strains, as well as remove a low fermentation temperature can, in turn, result in unwanted traits from the hybrid. Tis could be achieved impaired transporter function and lower nutrient uptake through sporulation, meiotic recombination and fur- [27, 29]. Relatively high levels of ergosterol and low lev- ther mating of the hybrid. However, interspecies yeast els of unsaturated fatty acids could, for example, result in hybrids, such as lager yeast, tend to be sterile, and there- a greater tendency of cell membranes to freeze at lower fore their sporulation efciencies and spore viabilities are temperatures, thereby reducing functionality [26, 30, 31]. usually poor [6–9]. Studies have revealed that allotetra- Te lipid composition of yeast has also been shown to ploid hybrids are usually not constrained by sterility [6, infuence ethanol tolerance [32]. Similarly to cold toler- 8], and these tend to be capable of producing viable dip- ance, ethanol tolerance has been shown to be dependent loid spores. Hence, allotetraploid interspecifc hybrids on unsaturated fatty acid and ergosterol concentrations may undergo meiosis, during which recombination may [31, 33]. Tey have been hypothesized to function by give rise to crossovers and gene conversions [10]. Tis maintaining optimum membrane thickness and fuidity in turn causes phenotypic variation, as traits may get by counteracting the fuidizing efects of ethanol. Here, strengthened, weakened or even removed [11]. we wanted to investigate what lipid species correlated Many strains of Saccharomyces produce vinyl phe- with good fermentation performance at low tempera- nols (POF; phenolic of-favours) from hydroxycinnamic tures and high alcohol levels, by examining how the lipi- acids, and these phenolic compounds are considered domes of brewing yeasts react to changes in temperature undesirable in lager beer. Te most well-studied of and ethanol concentration. these vinyl phenols is 4-vinyl guaiacol, which is formed In this study we wanted to both demonstrate the pos- from ferulic acid. Te ability of brewing yeast to pro- sibility of using an allotetraploid interspecifc hybrid as duce volatile phenols has been attributed to the adjacent an intermediate to create a POF− lager hybrid with DNA PAD1 and FDC1 genes, both of which are essential for from three parent strains, and use these hybrids to elu- the POF+ phenotype [12]. Wild yeast strains, such as cidate relationships between diferent lipid species and the S. eubayanus strains that are available for de novo tolerance towards low temperatures and high ethanol lager yeast creation, tend to have functional PAD1 and concentrations. Tis was accomplished by frst rare mat- FDC1 genes, while domesticated POF− brewing yeast ing a set of three parent strains, all with diferent desir- have nonsense or frameshift mutations in these genes, able properties, to produce fve diferent hybrid strains. rendering them non-functional [13–15]. As the func- Teir fermentation kinetics and lipid compositions were tional genes from S. eubayanus are passed on to any compared in small-scale fermentations performed at low lager hybrids created from it, these hybrids have all been temperatures and in the presence of ethanol. Lipids were aficted with the POF+ phenotype [2–4]. However, if analysed using both a targeted GC/MS and non-targeted any non-functional alleles of PAD1 or FDC1 are present UPLC/MS approach. Using multivariate analysis, it was in the hybrid genome, it may be possible to remove the revealed that high levels of unsaturated fatty acids and POF+ phenotype through meiotic recombination as especially phospholipids containing palmitoleic and oleic demonstrated in studies with intraspecifc S. cerevisiae acid were associated with good fermentation perfor- hybrids [13, 16]. mance at low temperatures and high ethanol concentra- Besides the ability to produce clean favour profles tions. Furthermore, ergosterol was associated with good (i.e. no of-aromas such as 4-vinyl guaiacol), one of the fermentation performance at high ethanol concentra- main traits of lager yeast is its ability to stay metaboli- tions, but had a negative efect at low temperatures. Tese cally active and ferment in the cold [1]. Recent studies observations were supported with growth data of labora- have revealed that the S. eubayanus parent strain con- tory strains lacking OLE1 and ERG4 genes in media con- tributes this cold tolerance to lager yeast [4, 17]. How- taining ethanol and oleic acid. Te potential application ever, unlike the POF+ phenotype, the mechanisms that of these strains in industrial fermentations was fnally contribute to cold tolerance in brewing yeast are not demonstrated in 2-L wort fermentations. Tese revealed fully understood. It has been revealed that low