Role of monophenols in the recovery process of wild-type yeast cells subjected to severe environmental stress

Phenolic compounds are important plant metabolites associated with the plant’s defence reactions in conditions of biotic and abiotic stress. Heterotrophic organisms are not capable of synthesizing phenolic compounds, but absorb them with foods of plant origin. Many of them exhibit antioxidant activity in chemical and biological assays. This study examined whether these compounds are able to protect cells of a heterotrophic organism from the effects of severe environmental stress. A wild-type strain of Saccharomyces cerevisiae yeast was used in the experiments. Yeast cells that were pre-incubated in conditions of severe thermal, osmotic or oxidative stress and then plated on a medium enriched with benzoic acid and its derivatives had a similar survival rate to the cells growing on a medium with no supplements, while in the presence of cinnamic acid derivatives and coumarin a reduction was observed in their survival. In the presence of the synthetic monophenol BHT, two different reactions were noted – a decrease in survival after 10 min of severe heat shock, and similar survival to that of the cells growing on the non-supplemented medium after 5 min of heat shock and the other types of stress. The results obtained suggest that monophenols used after severe environmental stress are not capable of eliminating the detrimental effects of these factors.