Model-driven analysis reveals oxidative stress adaptation enabling efficient energy utilization in a Crabtree-negative Saccharomyces cerevisiae

Journal article, 2026

Although abolishing the Crabtree effect in Saccharomyces cerevisiae through a pyruvate dehydrogenase bypass eliminates carbon loss through ethanol overflow metabolism, it compromises growth rates. While the Crabtree effect has been a valuable natural adaptation, it is energetically inferior to respiration and is generally undesirable in cell factories engineered to produce assimilatory compounds. Restoring growth efficiency in Crabtree-negative strains remains a central challenge. Through adaptive laboratory evolution of the engineered strain (sZJD23) and subsequent reverse engineering, a variant (sZJD28) with markedly improved growth was identified. This improvement is driven primarily by a mutation in MED2 (encoding a Mediator complex subunit) and, to a lesser extent, a mutation in GPD1 (encoding glycerol-3-phosphate dehydrogenase). By integrating quantitative proteomics with enzyme-constrained genome-scale modelling, we demonstrate that these mutations jointly enable a more efficient mode of oxidative stress adaptation and energy utilization. The GPD1 mutation suppresses a protein-costly, suboptimal NAD⁺-recycling strategy reliant on glycerol synthesis, while the MED2 mutation reshapes the oxidative stress response towards peroxisomal detoxification. Collectively, these adjustments optimize metabolic flux distribution and reduce protein costs in energy metabolism, thereby increasing ATP availability. Our findings reveal how coordinated mutations in regulatory and metabolic genes restore growth fitness in engineered Crabtree-negative yeast.