Protein abundance changes of Zygosaccharomyces rouxii in different sugar concentrations

• The proteome of a wild strain of Zygosaccharomyces rouxii under different sugar concentrations have been analyzed.
• Differential protein yield (13.97–19.23 mg/g cell dry weight) and number of resolved spots (196–296) were found between different sugar concentrations.
• The 2D gel surveys allowed visualization of differences in amounts of abundant proteins.
• We selected 2 of proteins for RT-PCR analysis to examine transcriptional regulation of the corresponding genes.

Zygosaccharomyces rouxii is a yeast which can cause spoilage in the concentrated juice industries. It exhibits resistance to high sugar concentrations but genome- and proteome-wide studies on Z. rouxii in response to high sugar concentrations have been poorly investigated. Herein, by using a 2-D electrophoresis based workflow, the proteome of a wild strain of Z. rouxii under different sugar concentrations has been analyzed. Proteins were extracted, quantified, and subjected to 2-DE analysis in the pH range 4–7. Differences in growth (lag phase), protein content (13.97–19.23 mg/g cell dry weight) and number of resolved spots (196–296) were found between sugar concentrations. ANOVA test showed that 168 spots were different, and 47 spots, corresponding to 40 unique gene products have been identified. These protein species are involved in carbohydrate and energy metabolism, amino acid metabolism, response to stimulus, protein transport and vesicle organization, cell morphogenesis regulation, transcription and translation, nucleotide metabolism, amino-sugar nucleotide-sugar pathways, oxidoreductases balancing, and ribosome biogenesis. The present study provides important information about how Z. rouxii acts to cope with high sugar concentration at molecular levels, which might enhance our global understanding of Z. rouxii's high sugar-tolerance trait.