The different behaviors of three oxidative mediators in probing the redox activities of the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae

The different behaviors of three lipophilic mediators including 2-methyl-1,4-naphthalenedione(menadione), 2,6-dichlorophenolindophenol (DCPIP) and N,N,N′,N′-tetramethyl-p-phenylenediamine (TMPD) in probing the redox activity of the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae were studied by several comparative factor-influencing experiments. Hydrophilic ferricyanide was employed as an extracellular electron acceptor, and constituted dual mediator system with each of three lipophilic mediators. Limiting-current microelectrode voltammetry was used to measure the quantity of ferrocyanide accumulations, giving a direct measure of the redox activity. It was found that under anaerobic condition, menadione interacts with anaerobic respiration pathway, whereas DCPIP and TMPD interact with fermentation pathway in the yeast. Based on the understanding of the interaction between the yeast and each of three mediators, three mediators were respectively employed in evaluating the toxicity of acetic acid on S. cerevisiae and, the results for the first showed that the mediators are complementary to each other when used as electron carriers in biotoxicity assay.