Metabolomics reveals the mechanism of Antarctic yeast Rhodotorula mucliaginosa AN5 to cope with cadmium stress

Heavy metal pollution in Antarctica has far exceeded expectations. Antarctic yeast is widely present in polar marine environment. The mechanisms of metabolomics effect of heavy metal on polar yeast have not been reported previously. In this study, gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC–MS) wascarried out to performed the metabolite profiling analysis of Antarctic sea-ice yeast Rhodotorula mucilaginosa AN5 exposed to different cadmium (Cd) stresses of 5 mM (HM5), 10 mM (HM10) and 20 mM (HM20), respectively. Metabolic profile analysis showed that the composition and contents of cellular metabolites have been altered by cadmium. 93 different metabolites were identified altogether, among which 23, 58 and 81 different metabolites were found in HM5, HM10 and HM20 group respectively. MetaboAnalyst analysis showed that in HM5, HM10 and HM20 groups, 12, 24 and 31 metabolic pathways were involved in the stress of cadmium to R. mucilaginosa, respectively. By contrasting with Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes database, we discovered that exposure of yeast AN5 to Cd stress resulted in profound biochemical changes including amino acids, organic acids and saccharides. These results will supply a nonnegligible basis of studying the adaptive resistance mechanism of Antarctic yeast Rhodotorula mucilaginosa to heavy metal. Graphical abstract: [Figure not available: see fulltext.]