In Silico Study of Aro Genes Involved in the Ehrlich Pathway: Comparison between Saccharomyces Cerevisiae and Kluyveromyces Lactis

ABSTRACT

At the present state of the art, genome sequencing techniques are advancing with a faster pace than the experimental proof of predicted genes and their functions. Many approaches for clustering annotated genes based on the degree of their sequence homology have emerged during the last decade. In the current comparative genomic study a parallel has been drawn between a set of ARO genes involved in the aromatic alcohol synthesis in the model yeast organism Saccharomyces cerevisiae and their orthologs in Klyuveromyces lactis. Through a combination of sequence comparison, online resources for homology and topology-based clustering, and a tool for prediction of the cellular localisation of proteins, it has been shown that the genes involved in the first two steps of the 2-phenylethanol synthesis in K. lactis are generally conserved when compared to their S. cerevisiae orthologs. They show 40–62% identity of the encoded protein as well as conserved synteny and cellular localisation. It is also likely that these species utilise the same type of regulation mechanisms for the process. The presence of a second ARO8 ortholog in K. lactis suggests a more environmentallyflexible and also effective production of 2-phenylethanol. This comparison aims to facilitate the design of further experiments that can reveal the regulation of fusel alcohol formation in K. lactis and improve their production.

Keywords:

• Ehrlich pathway
• 2-phenylethanol
• ARO genes