Engineering prokaryotic regulator IrrE to enhance stress tolerance in budding yeast

Background: Stress tolerance is one of the important desired microbial traits for industrial bioprocesses, and global regulatory protein engineering is an efficient approach to improve strain tolerance. In our study, IrrE, a global regulatory protein from the prokaryotic organism Deinococcus radiodurans , was engineered to confer yeast the improved tolerances to the inhibitors in lignocellulose hydrolysates or high temperatures. Results: Three IrrE mutations were developed through directed evolution, and the expression of these mutants could improve the yeast fermentation rate by 3-fold or more in the presence of multiple inhibitors. Subsequently, the tolerance to multiple inhibitors of single-site mutants based on the mutations from the variants were then evaluated, and eleven mutants, including L65P, I103T, E119V, L160F, P162S, M169V, V204A, R244G, Base 824 Deletion, V299A, and A300V were identified to be critical for the improved representative inhibitors, i.e., furfural, acetic acid and phenol (FAP) tolerance. Further studies indicated that IrrE caused genome-wide transcriptional perturbation in yeast, and the mutant I24 led to the rapid growth of Saccharomyces cerevisiae by primarily regulating the transcription level of transcription activators/factors, protecting the intracellular environment and enhancing the antioxidant capacity under inhibitor environments, which reflected IrrE plasticity. Meanwhile, we observed that the expression of the wild-type or mutant IrrE could also protect Saccharomyces cerevisiae from the damage caused by thermal stress. The recombinant yeast strains were able to grow with glucose at 42 ºC. Conclusions: IrrE from Deinococcus radiodurans can be engineered as a tolerance-enhancer for Saccharomyces cerevisiae . Systematic research on the regulatory model and mechanism of a prokaryotic global regulatory factor IrrE to increase yeast tolerance provided valuable insights for the improvements in microbial tolerance to complex industrial stress conditions.