High hydrostatic pressure activates transcription factors involved in Saccharomyces cerevisiae stress tolerance

A number of transcriptional control elements are activated when Saccharomyces cerevisiae cells are submitted to various stress conditions, including high hydrostatic pressure (HHP). Exposure of Saccharomyces cerevisiae cells to HHP results in global transcriptional reprogramming, similar to that observed under other industrial stresses, such as temperature, ethanol and oxidative stresses. Moreover, treatment with a mild hydrostatic pressure renders yeast cells multistress tolerant. In order to identify transcriptional factors involved in coordinating response to high hydrostatic pressure, we performed a time series microarray expression analysis on a wild S. cerevisiae strain exposed to 50 MPa for 30 min followed by recovery at atmospheric pressure (0.1 MPa) for 5, 10 and 15 min. We identified transcription factors and corresponding DNA and RNA motifs targeted in response to hydrostatic pressure. Moreover, we observed that different motif elements are present in the promoters of induced or repressed genes during HHP treatment. Overall, as we have already published, mild HHP treatment to wild yeast cells provides multiple protection mechanisms, and this study suggests that the TFs and motifs identified as responding to HHP may be informative for a wide range of other biotechnological and industrial applications, such as fermentation, that may utilize HHP treatment.