Viernes 29 de octubre
Hora: 12:30h
”Identification and elimination of oxygen requirements in yeasts”, por el Dr. Jack Pronk
A very large majority of the over 1000 genera of yeasts are capable of fermenting simple sugars such as glucose to ethanol and carbon dioxide under oxygen-limited conditions. This facultatively fermentative phenotype implies that these yeasts are able to conserve free energy as ATP without requiring mitochondrial respiration. However, only very few of these yeasts, including Saccharomyces cerevisiae (bakers’ yeast) can grow in the complete absence of oxygen.
The inability of most non-Saccharomyces yeasts to grow anaerobically are incompletely understood but generally attributed to direct or indirect requirements of biosynthetic processes for molecular oxygen. A deeper understanding of these oxygen requirements can shed light on the roles of oxygen in the metabolism of eukaryotic cells and in evolutionary adaptations of anaerobic eukaryotic lineages. Moreover, such an understanding is a prerequisite for eliminating oxygen requirements in yeasts with industrially relevant traits such as thermotolerance and, thereby, to unlock their potential for application in large-scale anaerobic industrial processes.
Over the past 5 years, I had the wonderful opportunity to study this metabolic puzzle with a team of postdocs and PhD students in the context of my ERC Advanced project Eloxy (Eliminating OXygen requirements in Yeasts). In my presentation, I will share our results on eliminating known (and a newly discovered) oxygen requirements of S. cerevisiae, on deep-branching anaerobic fungi as a source of inspiration for yeast research, on a yeast with a unique adaptation to sterol-independent growth and on anaerobic growth of the thermotolerant yeast Kluyveromyces marxianus.
Jack Pronk (1963) es profesor de Microbiología Industrial y director del Departamento de Biotecnología de la TU Delft (Países Bajos). Su trabajo se centra en comprender y mejorar el desempeño microbiano en procesos industriales e integra fisiología cuantitativa, genómica, biología sintética e ingeniería evolutiva. Jack es (co-) autor de 270 publicaciones científicas y es inventor de 25 solicitudes de patente. De 2003 a 2014, dirigió el Centro Kluyver de Genómica de Fermentación Industrial. En 2019 recibió el Premio Stevin, la más alta distinción para la investigación inspirada en aplicaciones en los Países Bajos y en 2020 fue elegido miembro de la Real Academia de Ciencias de los Países Bajos (KNAW).
Podréis asistir por Zoom a través del siguiente link:
https://dicv-csic-es.zoom.us/j/85499307403?pwd=RWF6NmF2aHhyZmptVGY1MndsM...
Al final de la charla se abrirá un turno de preguntas que se podrán trasladar a través del chat de la sesión o activando la cámara y el micro de quienes quieran consultar.
¡Os esperamos!