Nonlethal Furfural Exposure Causes Genomic Alterations and Adaptability Evolution in Saccharomyces cerevisiae
Lei S. Qi, Ying-Xuan Zhu, Yeke Wang, Xing-Xing Tang, Kejing Li, Min He, Yang Sui, Pinmei Wang, Dao‐Qiong Zheng, Ke Zhang
Abstract
Industrial microorganisms are often exposed to multiple environmental stressors and inhibitors during their application. This study demonstrates that nonlethal concentrations of furfural in the culture medium can significantly induce genome instability in the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Notably, furfural-exposed yeast cells displayed frequent chromosome aberrations, indicating the potent teratogenicity of this inhibitor. We identified specific genomic alterations, including monosomic chromosome IX and loss of heterozygosity of the right arm of chromosome IV, that confer furfural tolerance to a diploid S. cerevisiae strain. These findings enhance our understanding of how microorganisms evolve and adapt to stressful environments and offer insights for developing strategies to improve their performance in industrial applications.