Identification of novel genes involved in acetic acid tolerance of Saccharomyces cerevisiae using pooled-segregant RNA sequencing.

Acetic acid tolerance of the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae is manifested in several quantifiable parameters, of which the duration of the latency phase is one of the most studied. It has been shown recently that the latter parameter is mostly determined by a fraction of cells within the population that resumes proliferation upon exposure to acetic acid. The aim of the current study was to identify genetic determinants of the difference in this parameter between the highly tolerant strain MUCL 11987-9 and the laboratory strain CEN. PK113-7D. To this end, a combination of genetic mapping and pooled-segregant RNA sequencing was applied as a new approach. The genetic mapping data revealed four loci with a strong linkage to strain MUCL 11987-9, each containing still a large number of genes making the identification of the causal ones by traditional methods a laborious task. The genes were therefore prioritized by pooled-segregant RNA sequencing, which resulted in the identification of six genes within the identified loci showing differential expression. The relevance of the prioritized genes for the phenotype was verified by reciprocal hemizygosity analysis. Our data revealed the genes ESP1 and MET22 as two, so far unknown, genetic determinants of the size of the fraction of cells resuming proliferation upon exposure to acetic acid.