Effects of ethanol and other alkanols on passive proton influx in the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae

Ethanol, isopropanol, propanol and butanol enhanced the passive influx of protons into deenergized cells of Saccharomyces cerevisiae. The influx followed first-order kinetics with a rate constant that increased exponentially with the alkanol concentration. The exponential enhancement constants increased with the lipid solubility of the alkanols, which indicated hydrophobic membrane regions as the target sites. While the enhancement constants were independent of pH over the range tested (3.3–5.0), the rate constants decreased linearly with increasing extracellular proton concentration, indicating the presence of an additional surface barrier against proton penetration, the effectiveness of which increased with protonation. The alkanols affected the acidification curves of energized yeast suspensions in such a way that the final pH values were linear functions of the alkanol concentrations. These results were consistent with a balance between active and passive proton movements at the final pH, the exponential enhancement constants calculated from the slopes being nearly identical with those obtained with deenergized cells. It was concluded that passive proton influx contributes to the kinetics of acidification in S. cerevisiae and that uncoupling contributes to the overall kinetics of alkanol-inhibited secondary active transport across the yeast plasma membrane.