Distinct Proteome Remodeling of Industrial Saccharomyces cerevisiae in Response to Prolonged Thermal Stress or Transient Heat Shock

To gain a deep understanding of yeast-cell response to heat stress, multiple laboratory strains have been intensively studied via genome-wide expression analysis for the mechanistic dissection of classical heat-shock response (HSR). However, robust industrial strains of Saccharomyces cerevisiae have hardly been explored in global analysis for elucidation of the mechanism of thermotolerant response (TR) during fermentation. Herein, we employed data-independent acquisition and sequential window acquisition of all theoretical mass spectra based proteomic workflows to characterize proteome remodeling of an industrial strain, ScY01, responding to prolonged thermal stress or transient heat shock. By comparing the proteomic signatures of ScY01 in TR versus HSR as well as the HSR of the industrial strain versus a laboratory strain, our study revealed disparate response mechanisms of ScY01 during thermotolerant growth or under heat shock. In addition, through proteomics data-mining for decoding transcription factor interaction networks followed by validation experiments, we uncovered the functions of two novel transcription factors, Mig1 and Srb2, in enhancing the thermotolerance of the industrial strain. This study has demonstrated that accurate and high-throughput quantitative proteomics not only provides new insights into the molecular basis for complex microbial phenotypes but also pinpoints upstream regulators that can be targeted for improving the desired traits of industrial microorganisms.