Expression of heterologous transporters in Saccharomyces kudriavzevii: A strategy for improving yeast salt tolerance and fermentation performance

S. kudriavzevii has potential for fermentations and other biotechnological applications, but is sensitive to many types of stress. We tried to increase its tolerance and performance via the expression of various transporters from different yeast species. Whereas the overexpression of Z. rouxii fructose uptake systems (ZrFfz1 and ZrFsy1) or a glycerol importer (ZrStl1) did not improve the ability of S. kudriavzevii to consume fructose and survive osmotic stress, the expression of alkali-metal-cation exporters (ScEna1, ScNha1, YlNha2) improved S. kudriavzevii salt tolerance, and that of ScNha1 also the fermentation performance. The level of improvement depended on the type and activity of the transporter suggesting that the natural sensitivity of S. kudriavzevii cells to salts is based on a non-optimal functioning of its own transporters.