Analysis of the yeast short‑term Crabtree effect and its origin

doi:10.1111/febs.13019 The short-term Crabtree effect is defined as the immediate occurrence of aerobic alcoholic fermentation in response to provision of a pulse of excess sugar to sugar-limited yeast cultures. Here we have characterized ten yeast species with a clearly defined phylogenetic relationship. Yeast species were cultivated under glucose-limited conditions, and we studied their general carbon metabolism in response to a glucose pulse. We generated an exten-sive collection of data on glucose and oxygen consumption, and ethanol and carbon dioxide generation. We conclude that the Pichia, Debaryomy-ces, Eremothecium and Kluyveromyces marxianus yeasts do not exhibit any significant ethanol formation, while Kluyveromyces lactis behaves as an intermediate yeast, and Lachancea, Torulaspora, Vanderwaltozyma and Sac-charomyces yeasts exhibit rapid ethanol accumulation. Based on the present data and our previous data relating to the presence of the long-term Crab-tree effect in over 40 yeast species, we speculate that the origin of the short-term effect may coincide with the origin of the long-term Crabtree effect in the Saccharomycetales lineage, occurring ~ 150 million years ago