Using EPR to characterise the role of specific mechanosensitive channels in yeast cells involved in stress response

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The global economy has an unsustainable dependence on fossil raw materials. Biotechnological processes using microorganisms as cell factories to produce valuable compounds from renewable biomass are an attractive alternative, and many high-value chemicals can be produced at an industrial scale using this strategy. However, many microbial processes are not implemented at industrial level due to poor product yield and being more expensive than chemical synthesis.It is well-established that microbes show stress responses during bioprocessing and poor product yields from cell factories are because production conditions are ultimately toxic to the cells, often at the level of the cell membrane. Examples of stresses that are demonstrably membrane-centric are solvents, e.g. butanol production by Clostridia and ethanol production by yeast, and weak acids such a lactic acid produced by bacteria. This project will seek to understand the cell membrane of industrial microbes to increase tolerance to stresses during bioprocessing.Mechanosensitive channels (MSCs) are diverse, ubiquitous to living cells and play an important role in mechanosensory transduction of mechanical force exerted on the membrane. They convert this stimulus into a variety of electrical and/or chemical intracellular signals. This project aims to identify key MSCs involved in yeast stress responses (e.g ethanol exposure, osmotic shock) and to understand their roles using molecular biology techniques and electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR). These insights would further our understanding and provide an opportunity to discover novel ways to engineer more 'tolerant' microbes with greater product yields.