Crabtree effect

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The Crabtree effect, named after the English biochemist Herbert Grace Crabtree,

tricarboxylic acid (TCA) cycle, the usual process occurring aerobically in most yeasts e.g. Kluyveromyces spp.[2] This phenomenon is observed in most species of the Saccharomyces, Schizosaccharomyces, Debaryomyces, Brettanomyces, Torulopsis, Nematospora, and Nadsonia genera.[3] Increasing concentrations of glucose accelerates glycolysis (the breakdown of glucose) which results in the production of appreciable amounts of ATP through substrate-level phosphorylation. This reduces the need of oxidative phosphorylation done by the TCA cycle via the electron transport chain and therefore decreases oxygen consumption. The phenomenon is believed to have evolved as a competition mechanism (due to the antiseptic nature of ethanol) around the time when the first fruits on Earth fell from the trees.[2] The Crabtree effect works by repressing respiration by the fermentation pathway, dependent on the substrate.[4]

Ethanol formation in Crabtree-positive yeasts under strictly aerobic conditions was firstly thought to be caused by the inability of these organisms to increase the rate of respiration above a certain value. This critical value, above which alcoholic fermentation occurs, is dependent on the strain and the culture conditions.

Gibbs energy dissipation rate.[7]

For S. cerevisiae in aerobic conditions,[8] glucose concentrations below 150 mg/L did not result in ethanol production. Above this value, ethanol was formed with rates increasing up to a glucose concentration of 1000 mg/L. Thus, above 150 mg/L glucose the organism exhibited a Crabtree effect.[9]

It was the study of tumor cells that led to the discovery of the Crabtree effect.[10] Tumor cells have a similar metabolism, the Warburg effect, in which they favor glycolysis over the oxidative phosphorylation pathway.[11]

References

  1. PMID 16744238
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  5. ^ van Dijken and Scheffers, 1986 J.P. van Dijken, W.A. Scheffers; Redox balances in the metabolism of sugars by yeasts; FEMS Microbiol. Lett., 32 (3) (1986), pp. 199-224; https://doi.org/10.1016/0378-1097(86)90291-0
  6. PMID 2566299
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  8. ^ Verduyn, C., Zomerdijk, T.P.L., van Dijken, J.P. et al. Continuous measurement of ethanol production by aerobic yeast suspensions with an enzyme electrode. Appl Microbiol Biotechnol 19, 181–185 (1984). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00256451
  9. ^ Verduyn, C., Zomerdijk, T.P.L., van Dijken, J.P. et al. Continuous measurement of ethanol production by aerobic yeast suspensions with an enzyme electrode. Appl Microbiol Biotechnol 19, 181–185 (1984). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00256451
  10. PMID 25988158
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Further reading