Positive Selection Evidence in Xylose-Related Genes Suggests Methylglyoxal Reductase as a Target for the Improvement of Yeasts' Fermentation in Industry

Autor(es)

Borelli, Guilherme ^[1] ; Fiamenghi, Mateus Bernabe ^[1] ; dos Santos, Leandro Vieira ^[2] ; Carazzolle, Marcelo Falsarella ^{[1, 2]} ; Guimaraes Pereira, Goncalo Amarante ^{[1, 2]} ; Jose, Juliana ^[1]

Afiliação do(s) autor(es)

^[1] Univ Estadual Campinas, Inst Biol, Genom & BioEnergy Lab LGE, Campinas, SP - Brazil

^[2] Brazilian Ctr Res Energy & Mat CNPEM, Brazilian Bioethanol Sci & Technol Lab CTBE, Sao Paulo - Brazil

• Tipo de documento: Artigo Científico
• Fonte: GENOME BIOLOGY AND EVOLUTION; v. 11, n. 7, p. 1923-1938, JUL 2019.
• Citações Web of Science: 1

Resumo

Xylose assimilation and fermentation are important traits for second generation ethanol production. However, some genomic features associated with this pentose sugar's metabolism remain unknown in yeasts. Comparative genomics studies have led to important insights in this field, but we are still far from completely understanding endogenous yeasts' xylose metabolism. In this work, we carried out a deep evolutionary analysis suited for comparative genomics of xylose-consuming yeasts, searching for of positive selection on genes associated with glucose and xylose metabolism in the xylose-fermenters' clade. Our investigation detected positive selection fingerprints at this clade not only among sequences of important genes for xylose metabolism, such as xylose reductase and xylitol dehydrogenase, but also in genes expected to undergo neutral evolution, such as the glycolytic gene phosphoglycerate mutase. In addition, we present expansion, positive selection marks, and convergence as evidence supporting the hypothesis that natural selection is shaping the evolution of the little studied methylglyoxal reductases. We propose a metabolic model suggesting that selected codons among these proteins caused a putative change in cofactor preference from NADPH to NADH that alleviates cellular redox imbalance. These findings provide a wider look into pentose metabolism of yeasts and add this previously overlooked piece into the intricate puzzle of oxidative imbalance. Although being extensively discussed in evolutionary works the awareness of selection patterns is recent in biotechnology researches, rendering insights to surpass the reached status quo in many of its subareas. (AU)

• Processo FAPESP: 13/08293-7 - CECC - Centro de Engenharia e Ciências Computacionais
• Beneficiário: Munir Salomao Skaf
• Modalidade de apoio: Auxílio à Pesquisa - Centros de Pesquisa, Inovação e Difusão - CEPIDs
• Processo FAPESP: 17/07008-8 - Caracterização de novos transportadores putativos de xilose de Spathaspora passalidarum e expressão em uma linhagem industrial de Saccharomyces cerevisiae
• Beneficiário: Mateus Bernabe Fiamenghi
• Modalidade de apoio: Bolsas no Brasil - Iniciação Científica
• Processo FAPESP: 15/05578-6 - Prospecção de genes associados ao metabolismo de xilose em leveduras isoladas de insetos-praga e expressão funcional em linhagens industriais de Saccharomyces cerevisiae
• Beneficiário: Guilherme Borelli
• Modalidade de apoio: Bolsas no Brasil - Mestrado
• Processo FAPESP: 17/08519-6 - Construção de um atlas genômico para engenharia racional de Saccharomyces cerevisiae visando a produção de etanol de segunda-geração
• Beneficiário: Leandro Vieira dos Santos
• Modalidade de apoio: Auxílio à Pesquisa - Regular