The present results click here have revealed for the first time that magnesium is very important for the survival of yeast

cells undergoing dehydration, which is an environmental stress that strongly changes the molecular organization of intracellular membranes (Rapoport et al., 2009). Similarly, Rodriguez-Porrata et al. (2008) have shown that magnesium is important for cell survival during rehydration of dry yeasts. Consequently, the stress imposed on yeast cells by dehydration and rehydration can be minimized by optimizing magnesium bioavailablity either in nutrient growth media and/or in rehydration media. In Table 3, the influence of slow gradual rehydration of exponentially grown dry yeasts is seen when yeasts were grown (before drying) selleck chemicals llc with magnesium at 0.15 g L−1 and with variable Ca2+. The addition of Ca2+ had no influence on the viability of dehydrated exponential yeast cells after rapid rehydration. At the same time, supplementation with 2 or 5 g L−1 of Ca2+ resulted in unusually high increases in cell viability after slow gradual rehydration. Yeast cells taken from the exponential growth phase are stress-sensitive to dehydration–rehydration procedures. The viability of such cells after dehydration only occasionally reaches levels of around 30%

and more commonly is significantly lower. Therefore, Ca2+ may act to intensify the protective effect of Mg2+ on the stabilization of exponential-phase yeast membranes, possibly at the level of membrane protein stabilization. This unexpected result leads to the possibility of increasing yeast cell resistance to dehydration when biomass is harvested from the exponential growth phase and has implications for the baker’s yeast industry. Table 3 also shows the influence Methocarbamol of calcium on gradual rehydration of dry stationary-phase cells, where it can be seen that calcium improves population viability. When we compare the results on the effects of magnesium (Table 2) with the medium

with the same amount of magnesium, but with added calcium (Table 3), it is apparent that higher levels of cell survival rates can be achieved at rehydration. Although these effects with magnesium were seen at very high levels of viability (over 80%), it is clear that it is very difficult to improve such high levels of cells’ survival rates. Nevertheless, Table 3 shows that the addition of calcium in some cases led to viabilities of about 90%. These findings lend further support for a positive effect of calcium for stabilization of yeast membranes under conditions of water stress. A well-known biochemical antagonism exists between calcium and magnesium ions and this is expressed mainly at the level of cofactor competition for enzymes. Our data demonstrate that there can also be positive interactions of these metal ions under stress conditions such as dehydration, most probably at the level of intracellular membrane-protective mechanisms.