AbstractFission yeast adenylate cyclase, like mammalian adenylate cyclases, is regulated by a heterotrimeric G protein. The gpa2 Gα and git5 Gβ are both required for glucose-triggered cAMP signaling. The git5 Gβ is a unique member of the Gβ family in that it lacks an amino-terminal coiled-coil domain shown to be essential for mammalian Gβ folding and interaction with Gγ subunits. Using a git5 bait in a two-hybrid screen, we identified the git11 Gγ gene. Co-immunoprecipitation studies confirm the composition of this Gβγ dimer. Cells deleted for git11 are defective in glucose repression of both fbp1 transcription and sexual development, resembling cells lacking either the gpa2 Gα or the git5 Gβ. Overexpression of the gpa2 Gα partially suppresses loss of either the git5 Gβ or the git11 Gγ, while mutational activation of the Gα fully suppresses loss of either Gβ or Gγ. Deletion of gpa2 (Gα), git5 (Gβ), or git11 (Gγ) confer quantitatively distinct effects on fbp1 repression, indicating that the gpa2 Gα subunit remains partially active in the absence of the Gβγ dimer and that the git5 Gβ subunit remains partially active in the absence of the git11 Gγ subunit. The addition of the CAAX box from the git11 Gγ to the carboxy-terminus of the git5 Gβ partially suppresses the loss of the Gγ. Thus the Gγ in this system is presumably required for localization of the Gβγ dimer but not for folding of the Gβ subunit. In mammalian cells, the essential roles of the Gβ amino-terminal coiled-coil domains and Gγ partners in Gβ folding may therefore reflect a mechanism used by cells that express multiple forms of both Gβ and Gγ subunits to regulate the composition and activity of its G proteins.
Purification of Proteins Fused to Either the Amino or Carboxy Terminus of the Mycobacterium xenopi Gyrase A Intein
