RESEARCH ARTICLE
Effects of MCHM on yeast metabolism
Amaury Pupo ID1, Kang Mo Ku2,3, Jennifer E. G. Gallagher ID1*
1 Department of Biology, West Virginia University, Morgantown, West Virginia, United States of America,
2 Division of Plant and Soil Sciences, West Virginia University, Morgantown, West Virginia, United States of
America, 3 Department of Horticulture, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Chonnam National
University, Gwangju, Republic of Korea
*
[email protected]
Abstract
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OPEN ACCESS
Citation: Pupo A, Ku KM, Gallagher JEG (2019)
Effects of MCHM on yeast metabolism. PLoS ONE
14(10): e0223909. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.
pone.0223909
Editor: Timothy J. Garrett, University of Florida,
UNITED STATES
Received: April 26, 2019
Accepted: October 1, 2019
Published: October 17, 2019
Copyright: © 2019 Pupo et al. This is an open
access article distributed under the terms of the
Creative Commons Attribution License, which
permits unrestricted use, distribution, and
reproduction in any medium, provided the original
author and source are credited.
On January 2014 approximately 10,000 gallons of crude 4-Methylcyclohexanemethanol
(MCHM) and propylene glycol phenol ether (PPH) were accidentally released into the Elk
River, West Virginia, contaminating the tap water of around 300,000 residents. Crude
MCHM is an industrial chemical used as flotation reagent to clean coal. At the time of the
spill, MCHM’s toxicological data were limited, an issue that has been addressed by different
studies focused on understanding the immediate and long-term effects of MCHM on human
health and the environment. Using S. cerevisiae as a model organism we study the effect of
acute exposure to crude MCHM on metabolism. Yeasts were treated with MCHM 550 ppm
in YPD for 30 minutes. Polar and lipid metabolites were extracted from cells by a chloroform-methanol-water mixture. The extracts were then analyzed by direct injection ESI-MS
and by GC-MS. The metabolomics analysis was complemented with flux balance analysis
simulations done with genome-scale metabolic network models (GSMNM) of MCHM treated
vs non-treated control. We integrated the effect of MCHM on yeast gene expression from
RNA-Seq data within these GSMNM. A total of 215 and 73 metabolites were identified by
the ESI-MS and GC-MS procedures, respectively. From these 26 and 23 relevant metabolites were selected from ESI-MS and GC-MS respectively, for 49 unique compounds.
MCHM induced amino acid accumulation, via its effects on amino acid metabolism, as well
as a potential impairment of ribosome biogenesis. MCHM affects phospholipid biosynthesis,
with a potential impact on the biophysical properties of yeast cellular membranes. The FBA
simulations were able to reproduce the deleterious effect of MCHM on cellular growth and
suggest that the effect of MCHM on ubiquinol:ferricytochrome c reductase reaction, caused
by the under-expression of CYT1 gene, could be the driven force behind the observed effect
on yeast metabolism and growth.
Data Availability Statement: Raw metabolomics
data (from ESI-MS and GC-MS experiments) are
available at DOI:10.6084/m9.figshare.8038448.
Funding: This work was funded by a grant from the
NIH (R15ES026811-01A1) to JEGG. The funders
had no role in study design, data collection and
analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the
manuscript.
Competing interests: The authors have declared
that no competing interests exist.
Introduction
On January 2014 approximately 10,000 gallons of crude 4-Methylcyclohexanemethanol
(MCHM) and propylene glycol phenol ether were accidentally released into the Elk River,
West Virginia, contaminating the tap water of around 300,000 residents [1]. Crude MCHM is
an industrial chemical used as flotation reagent to clean coal [2]. More than 300 people in the
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Effects of MCHM on yeast metabolism
affected area visited emergency departments with reports of symptoms potentially related to
the spill, including mild skin, gastrointestinal and respiratory symptoms that resolved with no
or minimal treatment [3]. At the time of the spill, MCHM’s toxicological data were limited, an
issue that have been addressed by different studies focused on understanding the immediate
and long-term effects of MCHM on human health and the environment [4].
MCHM is considered a moderate-to-strong dermal irritant, causes fetal malformations in
rats when orally exposed to 400 mg/kg/day [5]. The highest concentration of MCHM detected
at the water treatment facility was 3.772 ppm and in treated household tap water was 0.42 ppm
[6]. Crude MCHM is not a dermal irritant to humans at the concentrations in the water
reported after the spill [7]. In the evaluation of different cell lines, HEK-293, HepG2, H9c2,
and GT1-7 only the highest dose of MCHM (128 ppm or 1 mM) elicited a statistically significant decrease in cell viability, when compared to the control (1% DMSO) [8]. MCHM induced
DNA damage-related biomarkers in human A549 cells, indicating that it is related to genotoxicity [9]. MCHM affected the larval visual-motor response in an acute developmental toxicity
assay with zebrafish embryos [10]. In a limited screen, MCHM induces chemical stress related
to transmembrane transport activity and oxidative stress in yeast [9].
The budding yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae is one of the most intensively investigated,
well-consolidated and widely used eukaryotic model organism. Its use has allowed the gain of
insights in basic cellular mechanisms such as cell cycle progression, DNA replication, vesicular
trafficking, protein turnover, longevity and cell death [11] or even more complex processes
like neurodegenerative disorders [12]. Being among the first components of the biota to be
exposed to environmental pollutants, bacteria and fungi are common model organisms for
eco-toxicological assessments [13]. A number of features make S. cerevisiae an ideal model for
functional toxicological studies, such as: being unicellular, the ease of genetic manipulation,
availability of a huge repertoire of dedicated experimental tools, protocols, software and databases, a high degree of functional conservation with more complex eukaryotes, among others
[13]. The effect of tens of pesticides has been studied in S. cerevisiae by a battery of omics
approaches, including transcriptomics, chemogenomics, proteomics and metabolomics
(reviewed in [13]).
Focused on the analysis of the whole repertoires of endogenous or exogenous metabolites
that are present in a biological system at a given time point metabolomics serves as a link
between genotype and phenotype [14,15]. Metabolomics is an extremely useful tool in the
analysis of the metabolic modifications induced by potentially toxic compounds [16]. These
studies include the effect different fungicides [17], Cu2+ exposure [18], tolerance to representative inhibitors [19], ethanol tolerance [20,21], among others.
Flux balance analysis (FBA) [22–25] with genome-scale metabolic network models
(GSMNM) allows the simulation of the metabolism at a systemic level, for the understanding
of diverse phenomena and making predictions [26]. There are more than twenty genome-scale
metabolic network models reconstructed for S. cerevisiae to date [27]. The consensus yeast
metabolic network stands out with 14 compartments, more than 3700 reactions, >2500
metabolites and >1100 genes [28].
The accuracy of FBA predictions can be improved by the integration of experimental data
[26]. Several methods have been developed to this end, allowing the integration of transcriptomics data: such as E-Flux [29], omFBA [30] and transcriptional regulated flux balance analysis (TRFBA) [31]; proteomics data: GECKO (a method that enhances a genome-scale
metabolic models to account for enzymes as part of reactions) [32]; and metabolomics data:
unsteady-state flux balance analysis (uFBA) [33].
In the present work, we study the effect of MCHM on metabolism using yeast as a model
organism, combining metabolomics tools with FBA simulations on genome-scale metabolic
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Effects of MCHM on yeast metabolism
network models of yeast constrained by RNA-Seq data. We found that MCHM treatment
altered metabolites and gene expression across metabolic pathways. Amino acid levels as well
as, many amino acid precursors increased while phospholipids decreased. The increase in
amino acid levels could be explained at the transcriptomic level as amino acid biosynthetic
genes were upregulated. Ribosome biosynthesis genes were downregulated, which is often
seen in response to stress. Several genes involved in mitochondrial function were upregulated.
The role of the mitochondria in MCHM was further supported by merging the metabolomics
and transcriptomics data in a flux balance analysis. This predicted that the growth inhibition
of MCHM would be minimized as the concentration of D-Glucose decreased. FBA simulations suggest Ubiquinol:ferricytochrome c as the limiting reaction, which would be caused by
the MCHM induced under-expression of CYT1 gene.
Materials and methods
MCHM treatment
Wildtype yeast from the S288c background (BY4741 strain his3, ura3, leu2, met15) [34] were
grown in YPD to exponential phase (OD 0.4–0.6) then treated with crude 4-Methylcyclohexanemethanol (crude MCHM provided directly from Eastman Chemical) 550 ppm (3.9 mM) for
30 minutes or left untreated. Six independent biological replicates were done per treated and
untreated group. After 30 minutes 5 optical units of cells were collected, washed with deionized water, flash-frozen in liquid nitrogen and stored at -80˚C for extraction within the next 24
hours.
Metabolites extraction
Lipid and polar metabolites were extracted with a 1:2:0.8 mixture of chloroform: MeOH: H2O,
following a modified version of a published protocol [35]. HPLC grade chloroform and methanol were from Sigma-Aldrich. All the steps were done using glassware, to avoid polymers contamination. The extractions were performed in 15 mL Kimble™ Kontes™ KIMAX™ Reusable
High Strength Centrifuge Tubes from Fisher Scientific. Half of the original protocol volume
values were used. For extractions headed to GC-MS analysis, 50 μL of ribitol internal standard
(10 mg/mL) were added. 3 mL of the polar and 3 mL of the lipid phase were collected per sample. The polar phase was dried in SpeedVac (ThermoFisher Scientific). The lipid phase was
dried overnight in a fume hood. For ESI-MS experiments, but not for GC-MS, the dried polar
phases were re-suspended in 500 μL of MeOH and the lipid phases were re-suspended in
500 μL 1:1 chloroform: MeOH. All extracts were stored at -20 oC for analysis within 48 hours.
ESI-MS
Samples were analyzed by direct injection of the resuspended extracts in a Thermo Fisher Scientific Q-Exactive, with an ESI (electrospray ion source), using positive and negative modes.
For polar compounds in positive mode the injection speed was 10 μL/min, the scan range was
50–750 m/z, no fragmentation, 140,000 resolution, 1 microscan, AGC target 5x, maximum
injection time of 100, sheath gas flow rate of 10, aux gas flow rate of 2, no sweep gas flow, spray
voltage 3.60 kV, capillary temperature of 320˚C, S-lens RF level 30.0. For polar compounds in
the negative mode most parameters remain the same, except for spray voltage: 3.20 kV, capillary temperature: 300 oC, S-lens RF level: 25.0. For lipid compounds in positive mode the following parameters were modified; scan range: 150.0–2,000.0 m/z, sheath gas flow rate: 15, aux
gas flow rate: 11, spray voltage: 3.50, capillary temperature: 300˚C, S-lens RF level: 25.0. For
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Effects of MCHM on yeast metabolism
lipid compounds in negative mode the previous parameters were kept, except for the spray
voltage, which was set to 3.20 kV.
50 scans were obtained per sample and later averaged with Thermo Scientific Xcalibur 2.1
SP1. Averaged spectra in the positive and negative mode were processed for polar and lipid
fractions, separately with xcms 3.2.0 [36]. Peaks were identified within each spectrum using
the mass spec wavelet method from the MassSpecWavelet 1.46.0 R package [37]. Peaks were
grouped with the Mzclust method, followed by groupChromPeaks. All features were plotted
visually inspected. The intensity values of each feature in each sample were obtained with the
featureValue method as the integrated signal area for each representative peak per sample. The
feature intensity and feature definition tables were saved as CSV files. Feature intensities were
normalized by the total sum of the intensities of all the features detected in the corresponding
spectrum (being identified or not). The normalization was done spectrum wise, so the normalized feature intensity values were a percentage of the total intensity of the spectrum of origin.
Features were identified via MetaboSearch 1.2 [38], with the list comprising the average mz
values for each feature as a query, with 5 ppm of error, positive or negative mode and using the
four online databases available as options in the program: HMDB, Metlin, MMCD, and
LipidMaps.
After the feature identification, normalized feature intensity tables (keeping only identified
features) coming from the same biological replicate (both positive and negative modes from
polar and lipid fractions) were merged as a single intensity table.
Features ids were confirmed by targeted MS/MS experiments, with selected features m/z
values included in a target list. The isolation width in the quadrupole was 1.0 m/z and nitrogen
was used as the collision gas. The fragment ions were measured in the Orbitrap with a resolution of 17,500 FWHM at 200 m/z, accumulation target 1E5, maximum fill time 60 ms and normalized collision energy of 29. The resulting fragmentation spectra were queried against
Metlin and HMDB, with a mass error of 5 ppm.
Six biological replicates per group for MCHM treated and untreated controls were used.
The experiment was repeated twice with consistent results. These biological replicates were
not the same used in GC-MS experiments.
GC-MS
50 μL of Methyl heptadecanoate 2 mg/mL was added as the internal standard to each lipid
sample before derivatization. Lipid and polar fractions were derivatized with BSTFA [39] and
MSTFA [40], respectively. For BSTFA derivatization dried extracts were treated with 200 μLL
N,O-bis(trimethylsilyl)trifluoroacetamide with 1% of trimethylchlorosilane at 75˚C for 30
min. For MSTFA derivatization dried extracts were treated with 50 μL methoxyamine hydrochloride (40 mg/ml in pyridine) for 90 min at 37˚C, then with 100 μL MSTFA + 1% TMCS at
50˚C for 20 min. Derivatized samples were analyzed using a GC-MS (Trace 1310 GC, Thermo
Fisher Scientific, Waltham, MA, USA) coupled to an MS detector system (ISQ QD, Thermo
Fisher Scientific, Waltham, MA, USA) and an autosampler (Triplus RSH, Thermo Fisher Scientific, Waltham, MA). A capillary column (Rxi-5Sil MS, Restek, Bellefonte, PA, USA; 30
m × 0.25 mm × 0.25 μm capillary column w/10 m Integra-Guard Column) was used to detect
polar metabolites. For water-soluble metabolite analysis, after an initial temperature hold at
80˚C for 2 min, the oven temperature was increased to 330˚C at 15˚C min-1 and held for 5
min. For lipid-soluble metabolite analysis, after an initial temperature hold at 150˚C for 1 min,
the oven temperature was increased to 320˚C at 12˚C min-1 and held for 7 min. Injector and
detector temperatures were set at 250˚C and 250˚C, respectively. An aliquot of 1 μL was
injected with the split ratio of 70:1. The helium carrier gas was kept at a constant flow rate of
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1.2 mL min-1. The mass spectrometer was operated in positive electron impact mode (EI) at
70.0 eV ionization energy at m/z 40–500 scan range.
Peak identification and grouping, and feature intensities calculation were performed with
Thermo Scientific™ Chromeleon™ (Version 7.2, Thermo Fisher Scientific, Waltham, MA,
USA). Features were identified against a locally characterized set of central metabolites (targeted metabolomics), when possible. Other features were identified querying NIST database
(untargeted metabolomics). Feature intensity tables were saved as CSV files, keeping only the
identified features.
Features intensities from lipid and polar fractions were normalized against its corresponding internal standards (methyl heptadecanoate for lipid and ribitol for polar fractions) and
then the ones coming from the same biological replicate (both lipid and polar fractions) were
merged as a single intensity table.
Six biological replicates per group for MCHM treatment and untreated controls were used.
The experiment was repeated three times with consistent results. These biological replicates
were not the same used in ESI-MS experiments.
Metabolomics data analysis
Feature intensity tables from ESI-MS and GC-MS were processed with MetaboAnalyst 4.0 [41]
and R 3.6.1. Missing intensity values were replaced by half of the minimum positive value in
the original data, before normalization. Up to 5% of the features with near-constant intensity
values among the samples were filtered out. Samples were scaled by Pareto scaling. Samples
were compared by univariate analysis (t-test and fold change, using R) and multivariate analysis: Principal Component Analysis (PCA), Partial Least Squares Discriminant Analysis
(PLS-DA), Sparse Partial Least Squares—Discriminant Analysis (sPLS-DA), OrthogonalOrthogonal Projections to Latent Structures Discriminant Analysis (OPLS-DA), Empirical
Bayesian Analysis of Microarray (EBAM), Random Forest classification, Support Vector
Machine (SVM) and Significance Analysis of Microarray (SAM), as implemented in MetaboAnalyst 4.0. For the selection of relevant metabolites, a majority vote model was built (for
ESI-MS and GC-MS independently). Metabolites were selected as relevant if they were significant in at least five of the nine previously mentioned analysis. The following criteria were followed by analysis type to select the metabolites: t-test (p adjusted < 0.05), PCA (abs(PC1
loadings) > 0.1 for ESI-MS, and abs(PC1 loadings) > 0.1 OR abs(PC2 loadings) > 0.1 for
GC-MS), PLS-DA (VIP component 1 > 1 for ESI-MS, and VIP component 1 > 1 OR VIP
component 2 > 1 for GC-MS), sPLS-DA (abs(loadings component 1) > 0), OPLS-DA (abs
(loadings component 1) > 1), EBAM, SAM, Random Forest and SVM (compounds labeled as
significant within the analysis).
PLS-DA and OPLS-DA models were validated by permutations as implemented in MetaboAnalyst 4.0 [41]. Briefly, 1000 permutations were performed. In each permutation, a model
was built between the data (X) and the permuted class labels (Y) using the optimal number of
components determined by cross-validation for the model based on the original class assignment. For PLS-DA the separation distance based on the ratio of the between group sum of the
squares and the within group sum of squares (B/W-ratio) was used for measuring class discrimination. For OPLS-DA the cross-validated R2Y and Q2 coefficients were used.
The performance of the sPLS-DA models was evaluated using leave-one-out crossvalidations.
The heatmaps of the relevant compounds were done with the R package pheatmap 1.0.12.
The Pathway Analysis was performed with MetaboAnalyst 4.0 using the name of the relevant compounds from the ESI-MS and GC-MS combined. The Saccharomyces cerevisiae
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Effects of MCHM on yeast metabolism
pathway library was used, as well as the hypergeometric test for the over-representation analysis and relative-betweenness centrality for the pathway topology analysis.
Some pathways were represented as Escher maps [42] with the thick and color of the edges
as a function of the respective MCHM treated vs untreated control flux ratio values.
Transcriptomics
A fraction of previously reported data was used, including only the samples with wildtype
S288c (S96 lys5) cells in YPD treated or not with MCHM [43]. The RNA-seq of S96 was carried
out on hot acid phenol extracted RNA [44]. The raw data is accessible at ttps://www.ncbi.nlm.
nih.gov/geo/query/acc.cgi?acc=GSE108873, containing count data generated via Rsubread
and the differential expression data generated via DESeq2. MA plot and KEGG Pathway
Enrichment Analysis were done with R packages ggpubr and clusterProfiler [45], respectively.
Flux balance analysis
For our FBA simulations, we used the consensus genome-scale metabolic model of Saccharomyces cerevisiae, yeastGEM, version 8.3.0 [46]. The simulations were performed with the
COBRApy python package [47], using yeastGEM definition of growth as the objective function to be maximized.
The upper bounds of reactions from yeastGEM were modified in correspondence with
gene expression of related genes from our RNA-Seq data. For this integration of RNA-Seq and
FBA we adapted the E-Flux method developed by Colijn et al. [29]. Briefly, every reaction is
associated with a set of genes which products (enzymes or transporters) make the reaction possible. In the simplest case, only one gene or none at all are associated, meaning that the enzyme
catalyzing the reaction is a single poly-peptide entity or that the reaction is spontaneous,
respectively. When the enzymes are heteromeric the gene coding for the different subunits are
associated by an “AND” keyword, and the maximum reaction flux was driven by the gene with
the lowest expression of the set. When the reaction can be driven by more than one protein the
corresponding gene (gene sets) are associated by the “OR” keyword, and the maximum reaction flux is a function of the sum of the corresponding gene (gene sets) expressions. If there
was no expression value for a given gene the average expression of the corresponding experimental group was used instead.
The resulting upper reaction bounds were normalized between zero and 1000 (the default
upper bound in the yeastGEM model). Two models came out as the result of this procedure,
one for MCHM treated yeast and one for the untreated control.
Default solutions were determined for each model using the optimize method from COBRApy and with the default yeastGEM media. Phenotype phase plane of Growth vs D-Glucose
exchange was calculated with the production_envelope method and the corresponding graphics
generated with ggpubr.
Upper bounds of selected reactions were manually modified to test for the importance of
such reactions in growth.
All fluxes are in mmol/(gDW� hour).
Results
MCHM affects yeast metabolism
To assess how MCHM treatment affects metabolism, 215 and 73 metabolites were identified
by the ESI-MS and GC-MS procedures, respectively (S1 Table). The compounds from ESI-MS
were dominated by phospholipids and sphingolipids, with 80 compounds belonging to those
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classes. In the GC-MS set, amino acids stand out, with 15 out of the 20 standard amino acids.
There was almost no overlap between both sets of compounds, as only eight metabolites were
detected by both procedures: adenosine, citric acid, L-lysine, L-proline, myristic, palmitic, and
stearic acids and uridine. A total of 280 metabolites were consistently detected by our combined analysis (S1 Table), comprising a variety of lipid and polar compounds (S1 Table).
Features from the MS spectra were detected, grouped, identified and their intensities calculated as described in Materials and Methods. Intensities were normalized to facilitate multivariate analysis (see Materials and Methods). Proper differentiation of the MCHM treated vs
untreated control groups can be seen in the Principal Component Analysis (PCA, unsupervised, Fig 1 top) and the supervised methods Partial Least Squares Discriminant Analysis
(PLS-DA, Fig 1 bottom), Orthogonal-Orthogonal Projections to Latent Structures Discriminant Analysis (OPLS-DA, S1 Fig, top) and Sparse Partial Least Squares—Discriminant Analysis (sPLS-DA, S1 Fig, bottom). The group separation (control vs treated) is consistent among
the PCA and PCA-like analysis, which indicates that it reflects the effect of MCHM treatment
and is independent of the supervision nature or the specificities of these PCA-like methodologies. The supervised methods validation can be seen in S2 Fig.
Relevant compounds were selected by a majority voting model, which takes into account
the result of the t-test and eight multivariate analysis (PCA, PLS-DA, sPLS-DA, OPLS-DA,
EBAM, Random Forest classification, SVM and SAM, see Materials and Methods, S2 and S3
Tables). For ESI-MS the number of significant compounds per analysis was: t-test (34, see S1
Table), PCA (30), PLS-DA (30), OPLS-DA (42), sPLS-DA (10), Random Forest (11, S3 Fig
left), EBAM (33, S4 Fig left), SAM (39, S5 Fig left) and SVM (86). From these 26 metabolites
were selected as relevant in the majority voting model (S2 Table). For GC-MS the numbers
are: t-test (22, see S1 Table), PCA (23), PLS-DA (16), OPLS-DA (34), sPLS-DA (10), Random
Forest (9, S3 Fig right), EBAM (23, S4 Fig right), SAM (29, S5 Fig right) and SVM (65). From
these 23 metabolites were selected as relevant in the majority voting model (S3 Table).
From the ESI-MS (left) and GC-MS (right) (Fig 2), 49 unique compounds were found relevant, with no common ones between ESI-MS and GC-MS. Samples were nicely clustered by
groups in the heatmaps, in correspondence with what was previously observed in PCA-like
analysis (Fig 1 and S1 Fig). The relevant compounds set from ESI-MS were dominated by glycerophospholipids (20 out of 26 compounds). The level of all these phospholipids was reduced
due to MCHM treatment (Fig 2 left). Amino acids stood out in the GC-MS relevant set of
metabolites, with 10 standards (A, D, T, V, N, G, Q, S, T and K) and two non-standard (5-Oxoproline or pyroglutamic acid and 2-aminobutyric acid, an alpha-amino acid derivative of alanine) which levels were increased due to the MCHM treatment (Fig 2 right). L-histidine, the
only amino acid in the relevant set from ESI-MS and not detected by GC-MS, also has its levels
increased due to MCHM treatment (Fig 2 left). Among the other metabolites which levels
were also increased due to MCHM treatment are: homoserine (intermediate in the biosynthesis of methionine, threonine and isoleucine), cystathionine (an intermediate in the synthesis of
cysteine), lanosterol (tetracyclic triterpenoid from which animal and fungal steroids are
derived), squalene, adenine, inosine and malic acid (Fig 2 right and S3 Table). Besides the
phospholipids, the nucleoside orotidine was among the metabolites with decreased level due
to MCHM (Fig 2 left, S2 Table).
These relevant metabolites were used as input for pathway analysis (Fig 3), which combine
pathway enrichment with pathway topology analysis. Seven metabolic pathways were both statistically significant and with impact (Fig 3). The relevant amino acids that dominated this
analysis were from three pathways involved in the metabolism of amino acids: the aminoacyl
t-RNA biosynthesis reactions have amino acids as reactants, the nitrogen metabolism has Lglutamine and 2-oxoglutarate as intermediaries, and L-serine, L-alanine, and glycine are
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Fig 1. Score plots from the Principal Component Analysis (PCA) (top) and the Partial Least Squares Discriminant Analysis (PLS-DA) (bottom), for ESI-MS
(left) and GC-MS (right) data. The 95% confidence areas are shown as well as the explained variance, shown in brackets in the corresponding axis labels.
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0223909.g001
involved in methane metabolism. The other relevant pathway was the glycerophospholipid
metabolism, as expected due to number of glycerophospholipids affected by MCHM (Fig 2
left, S2 Table).
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Effects of MCHM on yeast metabolism
Fig 2. Heatmap with the relevant compounds for ESI-MS (left) and GC-MS (right). The cells are colored by the normalized intensities. Both the compounds (rows)
and the samples (columns) are clustered and reordered by the similarity of the intensity patterns.
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Effect of MCHM on gene expression
We used a data set generated previously by our laboratory and available from https://www.
ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/geo/query/acc.cgi?acc=GSE108873 [43]. For this analysis, we kept only the
data regarding wild type S288c strain in YPD, treated or not with MCHM by 90 minutes.
From gene expression measurements for 3946 genes, 87 were upregulated and 30 downregulated due to MCHM treatment (Fig 4A, S4 Table) potentially affecting 18 metabolic pathways (Fig 4B), which include the three amino acid metabolism pathways in Fig 3. No pathway
enrichment was found from the downregulated genes.
Seven downregulated genes were involved in ribosome biogenesis: SDA1 and RRP1,
involved in 60S ribosome biogenesis [48,49]. ESF1, its depletion causes severely decreased 18S
rRNA levels [50]. BFR2, involved in pre-18S rRNA processing and component of SSU processome [51]. MRD1, required for the production of 18S rRNA and small ribosomal subunit [52].
NOP4, constituent of 66S pre-ribosomal particles and critical for large ribosomal subunit biogenesis and processing and maturation of 27S pre-rRNA [53]. NOP7, component of several
pre-ribosomal particles [54]. Loss of SDA1 function causes cells to arrest in G1 before Start
and to remain uniformly as unbudded cells that do not increase significantly in size [55,56].
Among the rest of downregulated genes, there are two that encodes for cell wall mannoproteins (CWP1 and TIR1) and three involved in iron and zinc transport and homeostasis (FTR1,
ZRT1, and IZH1). MCHM affects the intracellular levels of iron and zinc [43].
The upregulated gene set was enriched in genes coding for enzymes of the amino acid biosynthesis pathways (28 out of 87) (Fig 4 B, S4 Table): ARG1, ARG5,6, ARG7, CPA1, CPA2,
ASN1, GDH1, HIS4, HIS5, HOM2, HOM3, LEU1, LEU2, LEU4, LYS1, LYS2, LYS12, MET5,
MET6, MET17, MET22, TRP2, TRP5, TMT1, ARO1, ARO3, ADE3 and THR4. These gene
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Effects of MCHM on yeast metabolism
Fig 3. Pathway analysis using relevant metabolites from ESI-MS and GC-MS combined. The seven pathways with the impact greater than zero and
p < 0.05 are labeled.
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products participate in the biosynthesis of the amino acids: D, R, N, E, H, M, T, L, K, C, W, Y,
and F. Three other genes: CAR1, MET3 and MET14 are involved in R and M metabolism.
ARO8, encoding for the aromatic aminotransferase I, was also upregulated and its expression
is regulated by general control of amino acid biosynthesis [57].
Nine stress response-related genes are up-regulated due to MCHM treatment: AHA1,
GRE2, PDR3, PDR16, ICT1, TPO1, ENB1, SNQ2, and QDR3.
It is of note that genes encoding for six mitochondrial enzymes (MAE1, BAT1, ILV6, IDP1,
GCV2, and LYS12) and three mitochondrial transporters (GGC1, OAC1, and ODC2) were
upregulated. From these, MAE1 codes for the mitochondrial malic enzyme which catalyzes the
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Effects of MCHM on yeast metabolism
Fig 4. RNA-Seq gene expression data. MA plot (A). KEGG Pathway Enrichment Analysis for differentially expressed genes (B). No enrichment
was found for downregulated genes.
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0223909.g004
decarboxylation of malate to pyruvate (in addition to its key role in sugar metabolism, pyruvate is a precursor for synthesis of several amino acids); BAT1 and ILV6 products are involved
in branched-chain amino acid biosynthesis and ODC2 codes the 2-oxodicarboxylate transporter, which exports 2-oxoglutarate and 2-oxoadipate from the mitochondrial matrix to the
cytosol for use in glutamate biosynthesis and in lysine metabolism.
Modeling MCHM effect on yeast metabolism by flux balance analysis
Using the expression data and the gene rules from the yeastGEM model (version 8.3.0) upper
bounds were calculated for 2504 reactions of the model. Two new metabolic models were
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Effects of MCHM on yeast metabolism
Table 1. FAB solution for the control model.
IN FLUXES
OUT FLUXES
OBJECTIVES
Name
Flux
Range
Name
Flux
Range
Name
Flux
oxygen [e]
1.91
[1.91, 1.91]
H2O [e]
2.82
[2.23, 2.82]
growth
0.0704
phosphate [e]
1.2
[0.0178, 1.2]
formate [e]
1.74
[1.74, 1.74]
D-glucose [e]
1
[1, 1]
carbon dioxide [e]
1.35
[1.35, 1.35]
ammonium [e]
0.388
[0.388, 0.388]
diphosphate [e]
0.59
[0, 0.59]
sulphate [e]
0.00538
0.00538, 0.00538]
H+ [e]
0.302
[0.302, 1.06]
ethanol [e]
0.17
[0.17, 0.17]
[e] indicates extracellular compartment. All fluxes are in mmol/(gDW� hour).
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0223909.t001
created from the original yeastGEM model, named control and treated, with the upper bounds
of their reaction fluxes calculated from the corresponding gene expression data (as explained
in Materials and Methods), and using as the objective function the maximization of growth. A
summary of the result of FBA simulations with these models is shown in Tables 1 and 2. All
the input and output fluxes are shown, with the involved metabolites, the calculated flux rates,
and their ranges. Flux ranges were calculated by Flux Variability Analysis with a fraction to the
optimum of 1. The objective function flux is shown. The growth was predicted to decrease due
to the MCHM treatment, from a flux of 0.0704 to 0.0591 mmol/(gDW� hour) (Tables 1 and 2).
The flux ratio of growth between treated and control was ~0.839. So, MCHM treatment
decreased yeast growth, consistent with the experimental results [43].
Our FBA simulations predict that the effect of MCHM on growth was diminished when the
concentration of D-Glucose in the medium was decreased (Fig 5). There was a level of D-Glucose in the medium (~0.5 mmol/(gDW� hour)) from which the growth of the MCHM treated
and control models were the same.
We then focused on the seven significant pathways from the pathway analysis (Fig 3), to
analyze the flux ratios between the FBA solutions of the treated vs the control models. The
Escher maps representations [42] of alanine, aspartate and glutamate metabolism, aminoacyl
t-RNA biosynthesis, cysteine and methionine metabolism, glycerophospholipid metabolism,
glycine, serine and threonine metabolism, methane metabolism and nitrogen metabolism are
shown in S5–S12 Figs. As in any metabolic map, the nodes were the metabolites and the edges
connecting them were the reactions, with arrowheads indicating the reaction direction and
labeled by the corresponding enzyme or transporter. The ratios of the fluxes passing throughout the respective reactions in the MCHM treated vs untreated control models were shown
next to the enzyme names, and the color and width of the edges were scaled in function of
Table 2. FAB solution for the treated model.
IN FLUXES
OUT FLUXES
OBJECTIVES
Name
Flux
Range
Name
Flux
Range
Name
Flux
oxygen [e]
1.4
[1.4, 1.4]
H2O [e]
1.93
[1.77, 1.93]
growth
0.0591
D-glucose [e]
1
[1, 1]
carbon dioxide [e]
1.45
[1.45, 1.45]
phosphate [e]
0.345
[0.015, 0.345]
formate [e]
1.25
[1.25, 1.25]
ammonium[e]
0.325
[0.325, 0.325]
ethanol [e]
0.57
[0.57, 0.57]
sulphate [e]
0.00451
[0.00451, 0.00451]
H+ [e]
0.212
[0.212, 1.38]
diphosphate [e]
0.165
[0, 0.165]
[e] indicates extracellular compartment. All fluxes are in mmol/(gDW� hour).
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0223909.t002
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Effects of MCHM on yeast metabolism
Fig 5. The effect of MCHM on yeast growth was predicted to depend on the concentration of D-Glucose in the medium. Phenotype phase plane of
Growth vs D-Glucose exchange, from the FBA simulations with the control and treated models.
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0223909.g005
such ratio values. All the relevant pathways have fluxes affected due to the treatment, fluxes
that involved some relevant metabolites from the metabolomics studies. Only two reactions in
nitrogen metabolism pathway were relevant in the solutions of these FBA simulations: glutamine synthetase and bicarbonate formation reactions (S12 Fig). In the rest of the analyzed
pathways most of the reactions were active (with non-zero net fluxes) (S6–S10 Figs). The fluxes
of most reactions decreased in the MCHM treated model vs the control (flux ratios < 1).
There were many reactions which flux ratio (treatment/control) was the same ratio of the
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Effects of MCHM on yeast metabolism
Table 3. Reactions operating within 0.1 units of the maximum allowed flux.
Id
Name
Flux
Upper bound
Compartment
r_0226
ATP synthase
4.375
4.375
m, c
Model
Control
r_0438
ferrocytochrome-c:oxygen oxidoreductase
6.930
6.930
m, c
Control
r_0439
ubiquinol:ferricytochrome c reductase
3.465
3.536
m, c
Control
r_0501
glycine cleavage system
0.449
0.449
m
Control
r_0506
glycine-cleavage complex (lipoylprotein)
0.423
0.449
m
Control
r_0507
glycine-cleavage complex (lipoylprotein)
0.423
0.449
m
Control
r_0508
glycine-cleavage complex (lipoylprotein)
0.423
0.449
m
Control
r_0773
NADH:ubiquinone oxidoreductase
0.730
0.730
m
Control
r_1250
putrescine excretion
0.539
0.539
e, c
Control
r_0439
ubiquinol:ferricytochrome c reductase
2.582
2.582
m, c
Treated
r_0569
inorganic diphosphatase
0.330
0.330
m
Treated
Compartments legend: c, cytoplasm; e, extracellular; m, mitochondria. All fluxes are in mmol/(gDW� hour).
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0223909.t003
growth, the value 0.839. The extreme case was aminoacyl t-RNA biosynthesis (S7 Fig), where
all the reactions have this flux ratio. These reactions having the same treated/control flux ratio
as the treated/control growth ratio indicated that they were linked to the growth but does not
ensure that any of these reactions were actually limiting it.
Limiting reaction in FBA models. The reaction or reactions limiting the growth (limiting
reactions) must be operating at the maximum allowed flux (upper bound value, calculated in
function of the related gene expression levels) in the treated model. Two reactions operated at
max flux in the model of the treatment (Table 3, last two rows). One of these, the ubiquinol:ferricytochrome c reductase, was also operating almost at maximum flux in the control model
(Table 3, data row 3), and it was then the primary candidate to be the limiting reaction in our
FBA simulations. Ubiquinol:ferricytochrome c reductase is part of the oxidative phosphorylation pathway and contributes to the proton gradient formation through the mitochondrial
membrane.
To test if ubiquinol:ferricytochrome c reductase was the limiting reaction we modified its
upper bound in the control model to the one it has in the treated (Table 4, third data row vs
first and second data row). The growth rate decreased from 0.0704 to 0.0597, which was practically the same growth of the treated model, 0.0591. As can be seen, modifying the maximum
allowed flux of this reaction alone was enough to mimic the effect of the treatment in the
growth, confirming that ubiquinol:ferricytochrome c reductase was the limiting reaction
in our FBA simulations. We tried to recover the control phenotype (growth of 0.0704, Table 4,
Table 4. Effect of ubiquinol:ferricytochrome c reductase reaction on growth.
Id
Name
Model
Upper bound
Actual flux
r_0439
ubiquinol:ferricytochrome c reductase
Control
3.536
3.465
Growth
0.0704
Treated
2.582
2.582
0.0591
Control
2.582
2.582
0.0597
Treated
3.536
3.536
0.0672
Treated
10.000
4.534
0.0688
The first two data rows show the upper bounds set for the reaction from the RNA-Seq data for the control and treated models, respectively, as well as the resulting actual
fluxes and growth rates. The other three rows show the effect in the actual flux and on growth of modifying the upper bound values. All fluxes are in mmol/
(gDW� hour).
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0223909.t004
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Effects of MCHM on yeast metabolism
Table 5. Potential limiting reactions in the treated model when the upper bound for the ubiquinol:ferricytochrome c reductase reaction was set to the one it has in
the control model.
Id
Name
Flux
Upper bound
Compartment
Model
r_0226
ATP synthase
4.034
4.034
m, c
Treated
r_0439
ubiquinol:ferricytochrome c reductase
3.536
3.536
m, c
Treated
r_0773
NADH:ubiquinone oxidoreductase
0.918
0.918
m
Treated
All fluxes are in mmol/(gDW� hour).
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0223909.t005
first data row) by setting the ubiquinol:ferricytochrome c reductase upper bound in the treated
model to the one it had in the control one (Table 4, fourth data row vs first data row). The
growth increased (up to 0.0672), but not at the level of the control model (not even after setting
the upper bound to a higher value of 10, when the actual flux was lower than the set upper
bound) (Table 4, data rows four and five). This means that in the treated model there were
other reactions that become limiting when the maximum allowed flux through the ubiquinol:
ferricytochrome c reductase was set higher. These reactions were the ATP synthase and the
NADH:ubiquinone oxidoreductase, which were both operating at their maximum allowed
flux in this condition (Table 5).
Then, we kept the upper bound of ubiquinol:ferricytochrome c reductase reaction in the
treated model set to 3.536 (the value from the control model, Table 4 data row one) and set the
upper bounds of the other two reactions from Table 5 to an arbitrary large value (10), one at a
time, to see if the control growth phenotype can be recovered (Table 6). Increasing the upper
bounds of ubiquinol:ferricytochrome c reductase together with NADH:ubiquinone oxidoreductase increased to growth to 0.0672, which was still lower than the control growth rate
(0.0704). But, increasing the upper bound of ubiquinol:ferricytochrome c reductase reaction
together with the ATP synthase did recover the control growth phenotype, actually slightly
improving the growth (0.0756 vs 0.0704) (Table 6).
These results confirm than in our models the ubiquinol:ferricytochrome c reductase was
the limiting reaction.
Limiting gene. The gene reaction rule for ubiquinol:ferricytochrome c reductase in the
yeastGEM model is:
• (Q0105 and YBL045C and YDR529C and YEL024W and YEL039C and YFR033C and
YGR183C and YHR001W-A and YJL166W and YOR065W and YPR191W) or (Q0105 and
YBL045C and YDR529C and YEL024W and YFR033C and YGR183C and YHR001W-A
and YJL166W and YJR048W and YOR065W and YPR191W)
This means that the protein responsible for carrying out the ubiquinol:ferricytochrome c
reductase reaction is a multisubunit complex, with two possible quaternary structures, both
conformed by polypeptides encoded by a set of 11 genes. The genes encoding for the
Table 6. Recovering the growth phenotype in the treated model.
Id
Name
Model
Upper bound
Actual flux
Growth
r_0439
ubiquinol:ferricytochrome c reductase
Treated
3.536
3.536
0.0672
r_0773
NADH:ubiquinone oxidoreductase
10.000
1.445
r_0439
ubiquinol:ferricytochrome c reductase
3.536
3.536
r_0226
ATP synthase
10.000
4.863
Treated
0.0756
All fluxes are in mmol/(gDW� hour).
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0223909.t006
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Effects of MCHM on yeast metabolism
Table 7. Gene average expression for components of the ubiquinol:Ferricytochrome c reductase complex.
Gene id
Gene
Expression control
Expression treated
YBL045C
COR1
134.50
122.91
Complex configuration
1 and 2
YOR065W
CYT1
122.69
89.59
1 and 2
YPR191W
QCR2
133.78
138.20
1 and 2
YFR033C
QCR6
125.40
107.32
1 and 2
YJL166W
QCR8
317.91
552.80
1 and 2
YEL024W
RIP1
160.27
188.18
1
YJR048W
CYC1
309.61
179.50
2
YDR529C
QCR7
407.45
555.42
2
Average
All genes without expression data
472.26
448.02
1 and 2
The enzyme has two possible quaternary structures, labeled as complex configuration 1 and 2 in this table. The presence of the genes in a given configuration is stated in
the last column.
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0223909.t007
components of the first quaternary structure were COB (Q0105), COR1 (YBL045C), QCR7
(YDR529C), RIP1 (YEL024W), CYC7 (YEL039C), QCR6 (YFR033C), QCR9 (YGR183C),
QCR10 (YHR001W-A), QCR8 (YJL166W), CYT1 (YOR065W) and QCR2 (YPR191W). The
genes encoding for the second were COB (Q0105), COR1 (YBL045C), QCR7 (YDR529C),
RIP1 (YEL024W), QCR6 (YFR033C), QCR9 (YGR183C), QCR10 (YHR001W-A), QCR8
(YJL166W), CYC1 (YJR048W), CYT1 (YOR065W) and QCR2 (YPR191W). The maximum
flux of a multisubunit complex will depend on the gene with the lowest average expression,
which will be the limiting factor of the complex assembling. For both possible complex configurations, in both control and treatment conditions, CYT1 (YOR065W) had the lowest average
expression (Table 7). The expression level of CYT1 was limiting the maximum flux allowed
through the ubiquinol:ferricytochrome c reductase reaction in our FBA simulations. We were
able to reproduce the results shown in Tables 4–6, by modifying CYT1 expression values used
to build the control and treated models, instead of the derived reaction upper bound.
Discussion
MCHM significantly affected amino acid metabolism, increasing the total intracellular concentration of 11 out of 20 standard amino acids. As 28 genes coding for enzymes of the amino
acid biosynthesis pathways were upregulated due to MCHM treatment, the higher levels of
such amino acids can be partially explained by their probable increased biosynthesis. The
other contributing factor could be a reduced protein production, due to the deleterious effect
of MCHM on ribosome biogenesis (downregulating seven critical genes of the process), leading to amino acid accumulation. The downregulation of ribosome biogenesis is the first step in
stress response such as starvation, heat, or chemical. To respond to stress, energy-intensive
functions are down-regulated and inhibition of rRNA occurs in less than ten minutes of dextrose depletion [58].
There is evidence of other cellular stressors which also variate the levels of some amino
acids. Cu2+ increased the levels of L-glutamate, L-phenylalanine, and L-leucine and decreased
the level of L-aspartate in S. cerevisiae [18]. From these only L-aspartate varied in our analysis
increased its levels due to MCHM.
MCHM treatment provokes the upregulation of nine genes related to the stress response.
From these genes, AHA1 encodes a co-chaperone that binds Hsp82 and its expression is regulated by stresses such as heat shock [59]. GRE2 encodes the 3-methylbutanal reductase and its
expression is induced by oxidative, ionic, osmotic, heat shock and heavy metals stress [60].
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Effects of MCHM on yeast metabolism
PDR3 is a transcriptional activator of the pleiotropic drug resistance network [61]. PDR16
encodes the phosphatidylinositol transfer protein and it is controlled by the multiple drug
resistance regulator Pdr1p. It affects lipid biosynthesis and resistance to multiple drugs [61].
SNQ2 and QDR3 encode multidrug transporters involved in multidrug resistance [62,63];
ENB1 encodes for an endosomal ferric enterobactin transporter, which is expressed under
conditions of iron deprivation [64]; TPO1 codes for a polyamine transporter which exports
spermine and spermidine from the cell during oxidative stress, controlling the timing of
expression of stress-responsive genes [65]; ICT1 codes the lysophosphatidic acid acyltransferase responsible for enhanced phospholipid synthesis during organic solvent stress [66].
We did not detect enhanced phospholipid biosynthesis in our metabolomics analysis, by
the contrary, the levels of all glycerophospholipids included in the relevant metabolites were
decreased due to MCHM, while the levels of the remaining phospholipids did not change. The
reduced levels of these molecules of phosphatidylethanolamine, phosphatidylinositol, and
phosphatidylserine in MCHM treated cells point toward a significant effect of MCHM in yeast
cellular membranes, with potential effects on their biophysical properties, which could impact
several cellular processes involving membranes. In vitro MCHM acts as a hydrotrope, a compound that increases the solubility of proteins by inducing liquid-liquid phase transitions [43].
At high protein concentrations proteins can aggregate which is generally thought to inactive
enzymatic activities (reviewed in [67]). The wide range of pathways affected by MCHM could
be contributed to its nonspecific ability to alter protein structure.
The FBA simulations done with genome-scale metabolic network models (GSMNM) of
MCHM treated vs non-treated control yeast were able to reproduce the deleterious effect of
MCHM on cell’s growth. These GSMNM integrated the gene expressions from the RNA-Seq
data, as explained in Materials and Methods. The flux ratio through several reactions in the six
significant pathways from the metabolomics analysis was linked to the simulated growth ratio
in MCHM-treated vs untreated control models, but this does not indicate causality. The FBA
simulations suggest a critical role to the ubiquinol:ferricytochrome c reductase as the enzyme
catalyzing the limiting reaction which determined the reduced growth in MCHM. From this
multisubunit complex CYT1 product was the component limiting the overall reaction flow,
and the lower expression of CYT1 due to MCHM can explain the lower growth, at least in the
FBA simulations. It is of note that the fold change of the expression levels of CYT1 was not
large enough (logFC < 2) for the gene to reach the cutoff as relevant from the RNA-Seq data,
but the GSMNM created were very sensitive to its levels. This highlight the extra value of
RNA-Seq data integration in FBA simulations, allowing to assess the impact of gene levels in
whole-cell functional environment, where apparently irrelevant genes can prove to be the
driven force behind observed phenotypes. Transcription of CYT1 is positively controlled by
oxygen in the presence of glucose, through the haem signal and mediated by the transcription
factor, Hap1 [68]. It is additionally regulated by the HAP2/3/4 complex which mediates gene
activation mainly under glucose-free conditions. CYT1 basal transcription is partially affected
by Cpf1, transcription factor required for regulation of methionine biosynthetic genes [68].
The other significant reaction that came from the FBA analysis was the ATP synthase,
which maximum allowed flux or upper bound was required to be increased together with the
one of ubiquinol:ferricytochrome c reductase to rescue the control growth phenotype in the
MCHM treated model. Combining flux balance analysis with in vitro measured enzyme specific activities it was determined that fermentation was more catalytically efficient than respiration [69], producing more ATP per mass of required enzymes. In that study the enzyme
F1F0-ATP synthase was found to have flux control over respiration in the model, causing the
Crabtree Effect [69].
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Effects of MCHM on yeast metabolism
Conclusions
MCHM produced amino acid accumulation in S. cerevisiae, affecting several amino acidrelated metabolic pathways and probably slowing down protein biosynthesis due to the downregulation of genes related to ribosome biogenesis. MCHM affects phospholipid biosynthesis,
reducing the levels of different molecules of phosphatidylethanolamine, phosphatidylinositol,
and phosphatidylserine, which should affect cellular membranes composition and their biophysical properties. The FBA simulations suggest that the lower flow through ubiquinol:ferricytochrome c reductase reaction, caused by the MCHM-provoked under-expression of CYT1
gene, could be the driven force behind the observed effect on yeast metabolism and growth.
Supporting information
S1 Fig. Score plots from the Orthogonal-Orthogonal Projections to Latent Structures Discriminant Analysis (OPLS-DA) (top) and the Sparse Partial Least Squares—Discriminant
Analysis (sPLS-DA) (bottom), for ESI-MS (left) and GC-MS (right) data. The 95% confidence areas are shown as well as the explained variance, shown in brackets in the corresponding axis labels.
(TIF)
S2 Fig. Supervised models validation. PLS-DA models validation by permutation tests based
on separation distance for ESI-MS (A) and GC-MS (B). OPLS-DA models validation by permutation tests, showing the observed and cross-validated R2Y and Q2 coefficients, for ESI-MS
(C) and GC-MS (E). Plot of the performance of the sPLS-DA models evaluated using leaveone-out cross-validations with increasing numbers of components, for ESI-MS (E) and
GC-MS (F).
(TIF)
S3 Fig. Significant features identified by Random Forest for A) ESI-MS and B) GC-MS
data. The features are ranked by the mean decrease in classification accuracy when they are
permuted.
(TIF)
S4 Fig. Empirical Bayesian Analysis of Microarray (EBAM) for A) ESI-MS and B) GC-MS
data. 33 and 23 significant compounds are identified with this method for ESI-MS and
GC-MS, respectively.
(TIF)
S5 Fig. Significance Analysis of Microarray (SAM) for A) ESI-MS and B) GC-MS data. The
green circles represent features that exceed the specified threshold. 39 and 29 significant features are identified by SAM from ESI-MS and GC-MS respectively.
(TIF)
S6 Fig. Escher map of the alanine, aspartate, and glutamate metabolism. The flux ratios
between treated and control model FBA solutions are represented. Edges’ thickness and color
are a function of the respective ratio values. The ratio value of 0.839 is common among the
map.
(TIF)
S7 Fig. Escher map of the aminoacyl t-RNA biosynthesis. The flux ratios between treated
and control model FBA solutions are represented. Edges’ thickness and color are a function of
the respective ratio values. All the reactions have a ratio value of 0.839.
(TIF)
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Effects of MCHM on yeast metabolism
S8 Fig. Escher map of the cysteine and methionine metabolism. The flux ratios between
treated and control model FBA solutions are represented. Edges’ thickness and color are a
function of the respective ratio values. The ratio value of 0.839 is common among the map.
(TIF)
S9 Fig. Escher map of the glycerophospholipid metabolism. The flux ratios between treated
and control model FBA solutions are represented. Edges’ thickness and color are a function of
the respective ratio values. The glycerol-3-phosphate dehydrogenase reactions has a ratio value
of 0.839.
(TIF)
S10 Fig. Escher map of the glycine, serine and threonine metabolism. The flux ratios
between treated and control model FBA solutions are represented. Edges’ thickness and color
are a function of the respective ratio values. The ratio value of 0.839 is common among the
map.
(TIF)
S11 Fig. Escher map of the methane metabolism. The flux ratios between treated and control
model FBA solutions are represented. Edges’ thickness and color are a function of the respective ratio values. Only a fraction of KEGG’s reference pathway is present in yeast.
(TIF)
S12 Fig. Escher map of the nitrogen metabolism. The flux ratios between treated and control
model FBA solutions are represented. Edges’ thickness and color are a function of the respective ratio values.
(TIF)
S1 Table. List of all metabolites detected by ESI-MS and GC-MS. The experiment of origin
is indicated as well as the following values from the comparison of their levels in the MCHM
treated vs control samples: p-value (t-test), adjusted p values (“BH”), q-values, log2 of the fold
change, and the coefficient of variation of the controls.
(XLSX)
S2 Table. Majority voting model for relevant compounds selection from ESI-MS data. The
128 compounds being labeled as significant for at least one of the nine analyses used are
shown. For each analysis is indicated if the respective compound is significant (1) or not (0).
These values are added for the final votes. Compound with a majority of votes (5 or more) are
selected as relevant (highlighted in yellow, “Selected” column value equals TRUE), for a total
of 26 compounds.
(XLSX)
S3 Table. Majority voting model for relevant compounds selection from GC-MS data. The
66 compounds being labeled as significant for at least one of the nine analyses used are shown.
For each analysis is indicated if the respective compound is significant (1) or not (0). These values are added for the final votes. Compound with the majority of votes (5 or more) are selected
as relevant (highlighted in yellow, “Selected” column value equals TRUE), for a total of 23
compounds.
(XLSX)
S4 Table. Genes up and down-regulated due to MCHM treatment. The fold change and
adjusted p values are provided, as well as a functional annotation, when available.
(XLSX)
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Effects of MCHM on yeast metabolism
Acknowledgments
We would like to thank BioNano Research Facilities staff at West Virginia University, Dr. Callie Walsh and Sandra Majuta for their support with the ESI-MS experiments.
Author Contributions
Conceptualization: Amaury Pupo, Jennifer E. G. Gallagher.
Data curation: Amaury Pupo.
Formal analysis: Amaury Pupo, Jennifer E. G. Gallagher.
Funding acquisition: Jennifer E. G. Gallagher.
Investigation: Amaury Pupo, Kang Mo Ku, Jennifer E. G. Gallagher.
Methodology: Amaury Pupo, Kang Mo Ku, Jennifer E. G. Gallagher.
Project administration: Jennifer E. G. Gallagher.
Resources: Amaury Pupo, Kang Mo Ku, Jennifer E. G. Gallagher.
Software: Amaury Pupo, Kang Mo Ku.
Supervision: Kang Mo Ku, Jennifer E. G. Gallagher.
Validation: Amaury Pupo.
Visualization: Amaury Pupo.
Writing – original draft: Amaury Pupo.
Writing – review & editing: Amaury Pupo, Kang Mo Ku, Jennifer E. G. Gallagher.
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