Cellular Differentiation in Response to Nutrient Availability: The Repressor of Meiosis, Rme1p, Positively Regulates Invasive Growth in Saccharomyces cerevisiae

Genetics ◽  
2003 ◽  
Vol 165 (3) ◽  
pp. 1045-1058
Author(s):  
Dewald van Dyk ◽  
Guy Hansson ◽  
Isak S Pretorius ◽  
Florian F Bauer

Abstract In the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae, the transition from a nutrient-rich to a nutrient-limited growth medium typically leads to the implementation of a cellular adaptation program that results in invasive growth and/or the formation of pseudohyphae. Complete depletion of essential nutrients, on the other hand, leads either to entry into a nonbudding, metabolically quiescent state referred to as G0 in haploid strains or to meiosis and sporulation in diploids. Entry into meiosis is repressed by the transcriptional regulator Rme1p, a zinc-finger-containing DNA-binding protein. In this article, we show that Rme1p positively regulates invasive growth and starch metabolism in both haploid and diploid strains by directly modifying the transcription of the FLO11 (also known as MUC1) and STA2 genes, which encode a cell wall-associated protein essential for invasive growth and a starch-degrading glucoamylase, respectively. Genetic evidence suggests that Rme1p functions independently of identified signaling modules that regulate invasive growth and of other transcription factors that regulate FLO11 and that the activation of FLO11 is dependent on the presence of a promoter sequence that shows significant homology to identified Rme1p response elements (RREs). The data suggest that Rme1p functions as a central switch between different cellular differentiation pathways.

2006 ◽  
Vol 26 (3) ◽  
pp. 912-928 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dagmar M. Truckses ◽  
Joshua E. Bloomekatz ◽  
Jeremy Thorner

ABSTRACT In Saccharomyces cerevisiae, pheromone response requires Ste5 scaffold protein, which ensures efficient G-protein-dependent recruitment of mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) cascade components Ste11 (MAPK kinase kinase), Ste7 (MAPK kinase), and Fus3 (MAPK) to the plasma membrane for activation by Ste20 protein kinase. Ste20, which phosphorylates Ste11 to initiate signaling, is activated by binding to Cdc42 GTPase (membrane anchored via its C-terminal geranylgeranylation). Less clear is how activated and membrane-localized Ste20 contacts Ste11 to trigger invasive growth signaling, which also requires Ste7 and the MAPK Kss1, but not Ste5. Ste50 protein associates constitutively via an N-terminal sterile-alpha motif domain with Ste11, and this interaction is required for optimal invasive growth and hyperosmotic stress (high-osmolarity glycerol [HOG]) signaling but has a lesser role in pheromone response. We show that a conserved C-terminal, so-called “Ras association” (RA) domain in Ste50 is also essential for invasive growth and HOG signaling in vivo. In vitro the Ste50 RA domain is not able to associate with Ras2, but it does associate with Cdc42 and binds to a different face than does Ste20. RA domain function can be replaced by the nine C-terminal, plasma membrane-targeting residues (KKSKKCAIL) of Cdc42, and membrane-targeted Ste50 also suppresses the signaling deficiency of cdc42 alleles specifically defective in invasive growth. Thus, Ste50 serves as an adaptor to tether Ste11 to the plasma membrane and can do so via association with Cdc42, thereby permitting the encounter of Ste11 with activated Ste20.


1980 ◽  
Vol 86 (1) ◽  
pp. 123-128 ◽  
Author(s):  
C Field ◽  
R Schekman

Secretion of cell wall-bound acid phosphatase by Saccharomyces cerevisiae occurs along a restricted portion of the cell surface. Acid phosphatase activity produced during derepressed synthesis on a phosphate-limited growth medium is detected with an enzyme-specific stain and is localized initially to the bud portion of a dividing cell. After two to three generations of phosphate-limited growth, most of the cells can be stained; if further phosphatase synthesis is repressed by growth in excess phosphate, dividing cells are produced in which the parent but not the bud can be stained. Budding growth is interrupted in α-mating-type cells by a pheromone (α-factor) secreted by the opposite mating type; cell surface growth continues in the presence of α-factor and produces a characteristic cell tip. When acid phosphatase synthesis is initiated during α-factor treatment, only the cell tip can br stained; when phosphate synthesis is repressed during α-factor treatment, the cell body but not the tip can be stained. A mixture of derepressed α cells and phosphatase-negative α cells form zygotes in which mainly one parent cell surface can be stained. The cell cycle mutant, cdc 24 (Hartwell, L.H. 1971. Exp. Cell Res. 69:265-276), fails to bud and, instead, expands symmetrically as a sphere at a nonpermissive temperature (37 degrees C). This mutant does not form a cell tip during α-factor treatment at 37 degrees C, and although acid phosphatade secretion occurs at this temperature, it is not localized. These results suggest that secretion reflects a polar mode of yeast cell- surface growth, and that this organization requires the cdc 24 gene product.


Genetics ◽  
1989 ◽  
Vol 121 (3) ◽  
pp. 463-476 ◽  
Author(s):  
A Bender ◽  
G F Sprague

Abstract Saccharomyces cerevisiae has two haploid cell types, a and alpha, each of which produces a unique set of proteins that participate in the mating process. We sought to determine the minimum set of proteins that must be expressed to allow mating and to confer specificity. We show that the capacity to synthesize alpha-factor pheromone and a-factor receptor is sufficient to allow mating by mat alpha 1 mutants, mutants that normally do not express any alpha- or a-specific products. Likewise, the capacity to synthesize a-factor receptor and alpha-factor pheromone is sufficient to allow a ste2 ste6 mutants, which do not produce the normal a cell pheromone and receptor, to mate with wild-type a cells. Thus, the a-factor receptor and alpha-factor pheromone constitute the minimum set of alpha-specific proteins that must be produced to allow mating as an alpha cell. Further evidence that the pheromones and pheromone receptors are important determinants of mating specificity comes from studies with mat alpha 2 mutants, cells that simultaneously express both pheromones and both receptors. We created a series of strains that express different combinations of pheromones and receptors in a mat alpha 2 background. These constructions reveal that mat alpha 2 mutants can be made to mate as either a cells or as alpha cells by causing them to express only the pheromone and receptor set appropriate for a particular cell type. Moreover, these studies show that the inability of mat alpha 2 mutants to respond to either pheromone is a consequence of two phenomena: adaptation to an autocrine response to the pheromones they secrete and interference with response to alpha factor by the a-factor receptor.


Genetics ◽  
1994 ◽  
Vol 136 (4) ◽  
pp. 1287-1296 ◽  
Author(s):  
J Chenevert ◽  
N Valtz ◽  
I Herskowitz

Abstract In response to mating pheromones, cells of the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae adopt a polarized "shmoo" morphology, in which the cytoskeleton and proteins involved in mating are localized to a cell-surface projection. This polarization is presumed to reflect the oriented morphogenesis that occurs between mating partners to facilitate cell and nuclear fusion. To identify genes involved in pheromone-induced cell polarization, we have isolated mutants defective in mating to an enfeebled partner and studied a subset of these mutants. The 34 mutants of interest are proficient for pheromone production, arrest in response to pheromone, mate to wild-type strains, and exhibit normal cell polarity during vegetative growth. The mutants were divided into classes based on their morphological responses to mating pheromone. One class is unable to localize cell-surface growth in response to mating factor and instead enlarges in a uniform manner. These mutants harbor special alleles of genes required for cell polarization during vegetative growth, BEM1 and CDC24. Another class of mutants forms bilobed, peanut-like shapes when treated with pheromone and defines two genes, PEA1 and PEA2. PEA1 is identical to SPA2. A third class forms normally shaped but tiny shmoos and defines the gene TNY1. A final group of mutants exhibits apparently normal shmoo morphology. The nature of their mating defect is yet to be determined. We discuss the possible roles of these gene products in establishing cell polarity during mating.


1995 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 731-741 ◽  
Author(s):  
J Yaglom ◽  
M H Linskens ◽  
S Sadis ◽  
D M Rubin ◽  
B Futcher ◽  
...  

Cln3 cyclin of the budding yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae is a key regulator of Start, a cell cycle event in G1 phase at which cells become committed to division. The time of Start is sensitive to Cln3 levels, which in turn depend on the balance between synthesis and rapid degradation. Here we report that the breakdown of Cln3 is ubiquitin dependent and involves the ubiquitin-conjugating enzyme Cdc34 (Ubc3). The C-terminal tail of Cln3 functions as a transferable signal for degradation. Sequences important for Cln3 degradation are spread throughout the tail and consist largely of PEST elements, which have been previously suggested to target certain proteins for rapid turnover. The Cln3 tail also appears to contain multiple phosphorylation sites, and both phosphorylation and degradation of Cln3 are deficient in a cdc28ts mutant at the nonpermissive temperature. A point mutation at Ser-468, which lies within a Cdc28 kinase consensus site, causes approximately fivefold stabilization of a Cln3-beta-galactosidase fusion protein that contains a portion of the Cln3 tail and strongly reduces the phosphorylation of this protein. These data indicate that the degradation of Cln3 involves CDC28-dependent phosphorylation events.


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