The Flo11p-deficient Saccharomyces cerevisiae strain background S288c can adhere to plastic surfaces

The effects of four types of plastic surfaces and four pre-incubation media, containing high/low glucose and +/- amino acids, on adhesion of Saccharomyces cerevisiae BY4742 wild type and Deltaflo11 mutant (strain background S288c) were investigated. No difference in adhesive ability between the two yeast strains was observed in any of our experiments, thus confirming that FLO11 is not operational in the S. cerevisiae S288c strain background. The adhesive abilities of both yeast strains depended on the plastic type and pre-incubation conditions. The poorest adhesion was observed on hydrophilic polystyrene, whereas hydrophobic polystyrene resulted in moderate adhesion. The best adhesion of both yeast strains was observed on polystyrene surfaces with combined hydrophilic/hydrophobic domains. When amino acids were present in the pre-incubation media, lack of glucose increased the cell surface hydrophobicity and enhanced the adhesion to all four types of polystyrene. Lack of amino acids in the pre-incubation media increased the cell surface hydrophobicity and enhanced the adhesion especially to polystyrene surfaces with combined hydrophilic/hydrophobic domains. Our results suggest that glucose and amino acid starvation induces other genes than FLO11 in S. cerevisiae S288c coding for hydrophobic cell surface constituents with adhesive properties to especially moderately hydrophobic plastic surfaces.