RIM21基因缺失对拉格啤酒酵母絮凝性能的影响

Effect of RIM21 gene disruption on flocculation of lager yeast

拉格啤酒酵母是我国啤酒酿造的主要菌种。细胞絮凝是啤酒酵母重要的生产性状,在不影响发酵性能的情况下适度提高酵母的絮凝能力,有助于发酵结束时细胞和产物的分离,有利于工业化啤酒生产,具有较高的经济价值。前期在对一株工业用拉格啤酒酵母G03及其絮凝突变株的研究中,挖掘到一个可能影响啤酒酵母絮凝性的候选基因RIM21。为了验证该基因的作用,文中在G03中对RIM21进行了敲除,发现RIM21敲除后,酵母在11℃发酵条件下的絮凝性能增强,基因FLO5、Lg-FLO1及细胞壁完整性途径中的部分基因表达上调。同时,CO2失重、酒精度、发酵度等发酵指标未有明显变化。另外,发现RIM21的缺失增强了啤酒酵母对细胞壁抑制剂的耐性。研究结果为阐释低温发酵条件下啤酒酵母的絮凝调控机理及菌株絮凝性的改善提供了基础。

Lager yeast is the most popular yeast strain used for beer production in China. The flocculation of yeast plays an important role in cell separation at the end of fermentation. Therefore, appropriately enhancing the flocculation capability of the lager yeast without affecting its fermentation performance would be desirable for beer industry. Our previous study showed that the defect of gene RIM21 might contribute to the enhanced flocculation capability of a lager yeast G03. To further investigate the role of the RIM21 gene in flocculation of strain G03, this study constructed a RIM21-deleted mutant strain G03-RIM21Δ through homologous recombination. Deletion of RIM21 improved the flocculation capability of strain G03 during wort fermentation at 11 ℃ without changing its fermentation performance significantly. The expression of FLO5, Lg-FLO1 and some other genes involved in cell wall integrity pathway were up-regulated in strain G03-RIM21Δ. In addition, the disruption of RIM21 enhanced resistance of yeast cells to cell wall inhibitors. These results provide a basis for elucidating the flocculation mechanism of lager yeast under low-temperature fermentation conditions.