Combinatorial effects of environmental parameters on transcriptional regulation in Saccharomyces cerevisiae: A quantitative analysis of a compendium of chemostat-based transcriptome data

doi:10.1186/1471-2164-10-53

BMC Genomics
Volume 10

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Knijnenburg TA
Daran JMG
van den Broek MA
Daran-Lapujade PA
de Winde JH
Pronk JT
Reinders MJ
Wessels LF

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Knijnenburg TA
Daran JMG
van den Broek MA
Daran-Lapujade PA
de Winde JH
Pronk JT
Reinders MJ
Wessels LF
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Research article

Combinatorial effects of environmental parameters on transcriptional regulation in Saccharomyces cerevisiae: A quantitative analysis of a compendium of chemostat-based transcriptome data

Theo A Knijnenburg¹^,4 , Jean-Marc G Daran²^,4 , Marcel A van den Broek²^,4 , Pascale AS Daran-Lapujade²^,4 , Johannes H de Winde²^,4 , Jack T Pronk²^,4 , Marcel JT Reinders¹^,4 and Lodewyk FA Wessels¹^,3

¹Information and Communication Theory Group, Department of Mediamatics, Delft University of Technology, Mekelweg 4, 2628 CD, Delft, the Netherlands

²Industrial Microbiology section, Department of Biotechnology, Delft University of Technology, Julianalaan 67, 2628 BC Delft, the Netherlands

³Bioinformatics and Statistics, Department of Molecular Biology, The Netherlands Cancer Institute, Plesmanlaan 121, 1066 CX, Amsterdam, the Netherlands

⁴Kluyver Centre for Genomics of Industrial Fermentation, the Netherlands

author email corresponding author email

BMC Genomics 2009, 10:53doi:10.1186/1471-2164-10-53


Published:	27 January 2009

Abstract

Background

Microorganisms adapt their transcriptome by integrating multiple chemical and physical signals from their environment. Shake-flask cultivation does not allow precise manipulation of individual culture parameters and therefore precludes a quantitative analysis of the (combinatorial) influence of these parameters on transcriptional regulation. Steady-state chemostat cultures, which do enable accurate control, measurement and manipulation of individual cultivation parameters (e.g. specific growth rate, temperature, identity of the growth-limiting nutrient) appear to provide a promising experimental platform for such a combinatorial analysis.

Results

A microarray compendium of 170 steady-state chemostat cultures of the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae is presented and analyzed. The 170 microarrays encompass 55 unique conditions, which can be characterized by the combined settings of 10 different cultivation parameters. By applying a regression model to assess the impact of (combinations of) cultivation parameters on the transcriptome, most S. cerevisiae genes were shown to be influenced by multiple cultivation parameters, and in many cases by combinatorial effects of cultivation parameters. The inclusion of these combinatorial effects in the regression model led to higher explained variance of the gene expression patterns and resulted in higher function enrichment in subsequent analysis. We further demonstrate the usefulness of the compendium and regression analysis for interpretation of shake-flask-based transcriptome studies and for guiding functional analysis of (uncharacterized) genes and pathways.

Conclusion

Modeling the combinatorial effects of environmental parameters on the transcriptome is crucial for understanding transcriptional regulation. Chemostat cultivation offers a powerful tool for such an approach.