Unique genetic basis of the distinct antibiotic potency of high acetic acid production in the probiotic yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae var. boulardii.

ABSTRACT: The yeast Saccharomyces boulardii has been used worldwide as a popular, commercial probiotic, but the basis of its probiotic action remains obscure. It is considered conspecific with budding yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae, which is generally used in classical food applications. They have an almost identical genome sequence, making the genetic basis of probiotic potency in S. boulardii puzzling. We now show that S. boulardii produces at 37°C unusually high levels of acetic acid, which is strongly inhibitory to bacterial growth in agar-well diffusion assays and could be vital for its unique application as a probiotic among yeasts. Using pooled-segregant whole-genome sequence analysis with S. boulardii and S. cerevisiae parent strains, we succeeded in

SUBMITTER: Offei B 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6724677 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature