Physiological responses contributing to multiple stress tolerance in Pichia kudriavzevii with potential enhancement for ethanol fermentation

Economically feasible ethanol production requires efficient hydrolysis of lignocellulosic biomass and high–temperature processing to enable simultaneous saccharification and fermentation. During the lignocellulolysic hydrolysate, the yeast must encounter with a multiple of inhibitors such as heat and furfural. To solve this problem, a potential fermentative yeast strain that tolerated simultaneous multistress and enhance ethanol concentration was investigated. Twenty yeast isolates were classified into two major yeast species, namely Pichia kudriavzevii (twelve isolates) and Candida tropicalis (eight isolates). All P. kudriavzevii isolates were able to grow at high temperature (45 °C) and exhibited stress tolerance toward furfural. Among P. kudriavzevii isolates, NUCG–S3 presented the highest specific growth rate under each stress condition of heat and furfural, and multistress. Morphological changes in P. kudriavzevii isolates (NUCG–S2, NUCG–S3, NUKL–P1, NUKL–P3, and NUOR–J1) showed alteration in mean cell length and width compared to the non–stress condition. Ethanol production by glucose was also determined. The yeast strain, NUCG–S3, gave the highest ethanol concentrations at 99.46 ± 0.82, 62.23 ± 0.96, and 65.80 ± 0.62 g/l (P < 0.05) under temperature of 30 °C, 40 °C, and 42 °C, respectively. The tolerant isolated yeast NUCG–S3 achieved ethanol production of 53.58 ± 3.36 and 48.06 ± 3.31 g/l (P < 0.05) in the presence of 15 mM furfural and multistress (42 °C with 15 mM furfural), respectively. Based on the results of the present study, the novel thermos and furfural-tolerant yeast strain P. kudriavzevii NUCG–S3 showed promise as a highly proficient yeast for high–temperature ethanol fermentation.