Variation in Sensitivity to Desiccation and Heat Stresses during Yeast Sporulation and Spore Germination

Abstract

<p>A culture procedure was established to obtain uniformly high yields of yeast spores with high desiccation resistance, and this was used to study the following parameters during both the sporulation phase and spore germination process of yeast strain: changes in heat resistance, desiccation resistance, cellular free proline content and alpha-amino acid content. The effect on desiccation resistance of supplying exogenous proline was studied, and this is the first work to report that exogenous proline can increase desiccation resistance of yeast vegetative cells or sporulating cells. Small-celled colonies found after vegetative or sporulating cells were desiccated or treated with proline solutions are concluded to be possibly a mutant or a symbiont of yeast cells.</p>