Disruption of SAP1 confers vanillin tolerance in Saccharomyces cerevisiae

The objectives of this study were to identify genes associated with vanillin tolerance and to elucidate the link between vanillin tolerance and oxidative stress and the hog1 pathway activation in the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae for the production of biofuels and renewable chemicals from lignocellulosic biomass. In this study, one strain tolerant to vanillin stress was isolated through a transposon-mediated mutant library, and the disrupted gene was identified as SAP1. In addition, this phenotype associated with vanillin tolerance was confirmed by deletion and overexpressing of this corresponding gene. In response to vanillin stress, mutant strain was found to reduce intracellular level of reactive oxygen species (ROS), induce activation of Hog1p, and increase expression of the stress-response transcription factors MSN2/4 and genes mediated by stress response elements such as CTT1, HSP12, and DDR2.