Search and analysis of lncRNAs (long non-coding RNAs) important for the ethanol tolerance in Saccharomyces cerevisiae

Abstract

The world efforts to reduce the use of fossil fuels have been increasing and the ethanol as fuel has been claimed as an excellent alternative energy source. The yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae is the microorganism most used to produce ethanol, since it has high fermentative capacity as well as stressors resistance. However, the ethanol concentration is one of the most limiting factors for the fermentation. The molecular basis of functional genomics related to the ethanol tolerance still remain poorly understood, and only a few papers focus on transcriptomes; furthermore, the lncRNAs related to this phenomena never was investigated. In fact, the number of lncRNAs identified in S. cerevisiae is still low and neither their roles on lncRNA-protein interactions in this species nor their potential micropeptides coding are known. Thus, the present project focus on assembling and identification of lncRNAs related to the ethanol tolerance in S. cerevisiae. For this purpose, it will be performed assembling/identification of lncRNAs (based on transcriptome data), identification/validation of micropeptides coding from those lncRNAs (validation will be performed based on mass/charge of proteomes), prediction of lncRNA-protein bindings and comparative analysis between more and less ethanol tolerant strains. Moreover, the impact of lncRNA expression that could bind to transcription factors will be explored as well. The transcriptome and proteome data are already available, which were granted by a FAPESP regular grant 2015/12093-9. Thus the fellowship-candidate will deeply focus on computation analysis. (AU)