Evidence of antimycin-insensitive respiration in a commercial brewing yeast

Abstract

The presence of antimycin-insensitive respiration in an industrial brewing yeast strain (Saccharomyces cerevisiae AJL 2036) was confirmed by studying the effects of antimycin A (inhibits electron transfer from cyt b to c1) on brewing yeast performance in the presence and absence of oxygen. The inhibitor sodium azide was also used to assess whether blocking electron transfer further downstream of the antimycin-effective site eliminated the enhanced fermentation parameters observed in the presence of antimycin A. Oligomycin, an inhibitor of the mitrochondrial membrane ATPase, was also used to determine the importance of intramitochondrial ATP synthesis on the observed effects. Fermentations were monitored for overall performance and beer quality indicators. The measured parameters showed no changes due to oligomycin addition indicating that the major source of energy in the cells was cytoplasmically-generated via glycolysis. Results from the fermentations in the presence of antimycin A confirmed the existence of an alternative respiratory pathway, the stimulation of which resulted in improved fermentative performance. It is postulated that antimycin A enhanced the fermentation rate by increasing the amount of yeast growth. This caused a direct pull on yeast metabolism including fermentative activity. The mechanism was postulated to involve an increased supply of critical growth intermediates in the presence of antimycin A rather than an increased intramitochondrial energy supply per se.