Fermentative capacity of dry active wine yeast requires a specific oxidative stress response during industrial biomass growth

Induction of the oxidative stress response has been described under many physiological conditions in Saccharomyces cerevisiae, including industrial fermentation for wine yeast biomass production where cells are grown through several batch and fed-batch cultures on molasses. Here, we investigate the influence of aeration on the expression changes of different gene markers for oxidative stress and compare the induction profiles to the accumulation of several intracellular metabolites in order to correlate the molecular response to physiological and metabolic changes. We also demonstrate that this specific oxidative response is relevant for wine yeast performance by construction of a genetically engineered wine yeast strain overexpressing the TRX2 gene that codifies a thioredoxin, one of the most important cellular defenses against oxidative damage. This modified strain displays an improved fermentative capacity and lower levels of oxidative cellular damages than its parental strain after dry biomass production.