Lack of correlation between trehalose accumulation, cell viability and intracellular acidification as induced by various stresses in Saccharomyces cerevisiae.

A pma1-1 mutant of Saccharomyces cerevisiae with reduced H+-ATPase activity and the isogenic wild-type strain accumulated high levels of trehalose in response to a temperature upshift to 40 éC and after addition of 10% ethanol, but only modest levels in response to a rapid drop in external pH and after addition of decanoic acid. There was, however, no correlation between the absolute levels of trehalose in the stressed cells and their viability. All these treatments induced a significant decrease in intracellular pH, and surprisingly, this decrease was very similar in both strains, indicating that intracellular acidification could not be the triggering mechanism for trehalose accumulation i…