Background: Yeast strains are exposed to numerous environmental stresses during industrial alcoholic
fermentation. High temperature accumulated acetic acid, enhanced the growth inhibition and decreased
ethanol production.
Results: In this study the influence of high temperature on the cellular and mitochondrialmembrane integrity of
Saccharomyces cerevisiae
as well as reactive oxygen species (ROS) formation was investigated to understand the
mechanisms of the high temperature fermentation process. However, increasing the temperature to 42°C
resulted in a clear decrease in the cytoplasmic and mitochondrial membrane potential and an increase in
intracellular ROS formation. It was also determined that the different thermostability between YZ1 and YF31
strains had a clear correlation with the yeast's intracellular trehalose content of the cell. Finally, random
amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) was used to explore the genome differences between the YZ1 and YF31
strains.
Conclusions: Thus, the stability of the mitochondrialmembrane and subsequently, the clearance ROS ability could
be important factors for the viability of
S. cerevisiae at high temperatures.