Effect of Trehalose on Stabilization of Cellular Components and Critical Targets Against Heat Shock in Saccharomyces cerevisiae KNU5377

In our previous study [14], we found that heat-shock exposure did not stimulate the neutral trehalase activity in Sacchromyces cerevisiae KNU5377, but did in ATCC24858. Consequently, the trehalose content in KNU5377 became 2.6 times higher than that in ATCC24858. Because trehalose has been shown to stabilize the structure and function of some macromolecules, the present work was focused to elucidate the relationship between trehalose content of these strains and thermal stabilities of whole cells, through differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), and to predict critical targets calculated from the hyperthermic cell killing rates. These analyses showed that the prominent DSC transition of both strains gave identical $T_m$ (transition temperature) values in exponentially growing cells, and that the $T_m$ values of critical targets was about $3^{\circ}C$ higher in KNU5377 than in ATCC24858. Both heat-shocked KNU5377 and ATCC24858 cells displayed similar shifts in their DSC transition profiles. On the other hand, the $T_m$ value of the critical target of KNU5377 was decreased by $2.1^{\circ}C$, which was still higher than ATCC24858 showing no changes. In view of these results, the intrinsic thermotolerance of KNU5377 did not appear to result from the stability of entire cellular components, but rather possibly from that of particular macromolecules, including critical targets, even though it should be investigated in more details. Although the trehalose levels in heat-shocked cells are significantly different, as described in our previous study [14], the overall pattern of thermal stabilities and their predicted critical targets in two heat-shocked strains seemed to be identical. These data suggest that the trehalose levels examined before and after heat shock of exponentially growing cells are not closely correlated with the stabilities of whole cells and/or critical targets in both yeast strains.