Cadmium accumulation and its effects on intracellular ion pools in a brewing strain of Saccharomyces cerevisiae

The presence of glucose resulted in a two- to three-fold increase in levels of Cd²⁺accumulated by Saccharomyces cerevisiae after 5 h compared with those observed in the absence of glucose. However, time-dependent Cd²⁺ uptake continued in the absence of glucose over 5 h, resulting in an appreciable increase in cellular Cd²⁺levels. Substantial K⁺ efflux but little Mg²⁺ and negligible Ca²⁺release was observed. Cell fractionation revealed that the bulk of intracellular Cd²⁺ was located in the vacuolar (25%) and bound (60%) fractions. Accumulation of Cd²⁺ ions impacted most noticeably on K⁺ rather than Mg²⁺ levels in intracellular compartments. Cytoplasmic and particularly vacuolar K⁺ levels decreased as Cd²⁺ sequestration continued resulting in increased extracellular levels. In contrast, corresponding intracellular Mg²⁺ pools were only modestly affected with a slight increase and decrease observed in the cytoplasmic and vacuolar fractions respectively. However, levels of bound Mg²⁺ decreased in response to continued Cd²⁺ accumulation. Received 07 March 1999/ Accepted in revised form 26 June 1999