Trehalose promotes the survival of Saccharomyces cerevisiae during lethal ethanol stress, but does not influence growth under sublethal ethanol stress

Trehalose is known to protect cells from various environmental assaults; however, its role in the ethanol tolerance of Saccharomyces cerevisiae remains controversial. Many previous studies report correlations between trehalose levels and ethanol tolerance across a variety of strains, yet variations in genetic background make it difficult to separate the impact of trehalose from other stress response factors. In the current study, investigations were conducted on the ethanol tolerance of S. cerevisiae BY4742 and BY4742 deletion strains, tsl1 Δ and nth1 Δ, across a range of ethanol concentrations. It was found that trehalose does play a role in ethanol tolerance at lethal ethanol concentrations, but not at sublethal ethanol concentrations; differences of 20–40% in the intracellular trehalose concentration did not provide any growth advantage for cells incubated in the presence of sublethal ethanol concentrations. It was speculated that the ethanol concentration-dependent nature of the trehalose effect supports a mechanism for trehalose in protecting cellular proteins from the damaging effects of ethanol.