Control of MAPK specificity by feedback phosphorylation of shared adaptor protein Ste50

Multilayered control of gene expression by stress-activated protein kinases

Stress-activated protein kinases (SAPKs) are key elements for intracellular signalling networks that serve to respond and adapt to extracellular changes. Exposure of yeast to high osmolarity results in the activation of p38-related SAPK, Hog1, which is essential for reprogramming the gene expression capacity of the cell by regulation of several steps of the transcription process. At initiation, active Hog1 not only directly phosphorylates several transcription factors to alter their activities, but also associates at stress-responsive promoters through such transcription factors. Once at the promoters, Hog1 serves as a platform to recruit general transcription factors, chromatin-modifying activities and RNA Pol II. In addition, the SAPK pathway has a role in elongation. At the stress-responsive ORFs, Hog1 recruits the RSC chromatin-remodelling complex to modify nucleosome organization. Several SAPKs from yeast to mammals have maintained some of the regulatory abilities of Hog1. Thus, elucidating the control of gene expression by the Hog1 SAPK should help to understand how eukaryotic cells implement a massive and rapid change on their transcriptional capacity in response to adverse conditions.

Expression of the yeast aquaporin Aqy2 affects cell surface properties under the control of osmoregulatory and morphogenic signalling pathways

Aquaporins mediate rapid and selective water transport across biological membranes. The yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae possesses two aquaporins, Aqy1 and Aqy2. Here, we show that Aqy2 is involved in controlling cell surface properties and that its expression is controlled by osmoregulatory and morphogenic signalling pathways. Deletion of AQY2 results in diminished fluffy colony morphology while overexpression of AQY2 causes strong agar invasion and adherence to plastic surfaces. Hyper-osmotic stress inhibits morphological developments including the above characteristics as well as AQY2 expression through the osmoregulatory Hog1 mitogen-activated protein kinase. Moreover, two pathways known to control morphological developments are involved in regulation of AQY2 expression: the protein kinase A pathway derepresses AQY2 expression through the Sfl1 repressor, and the filamentous growth Kss1 mitogen-activated protein kinase pathway represses AQY2 expression in a Kss1 activity-independent manner. The AQY2 expression pattern resembles in many ways that of MUC1/FLO11, which encodes a cell surface glycoprotein required for morphological developments. Our observations suggest a potential link between aquaporins and cell surface properties, and relate to the proposed role of mammalian aquaporins in tumour cell migration and invasion.

Sumoylation of transcription factor Tec1 regulates signaling of mitogen-activated protein kinase pathways in yeast

Tec1 is a transcription factor in the yeast mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) pathway that controls invasive growth. Previously we reported that a fraction of Tec1 protein is sumoylated on residue lysine 54 in normally growing cells. Here we describe regulation and functional consequences of Tec1 sumoylation. We found that activation of Kss1, the MAPK that directly activates Tec1, results in a decrease in Tec1 sumoylation and a concurrent increase of Tec1 transcriptional activity. Consistent with a role of sumoylation in inhibiting Tec1 activity, specifically increasing sumoylation of Tec1 by fusing it to the sumoylating enzyme Ubc9 leads to a dramatic decrease of Tec1 transcriptional activity. Invasive growth is also compromised in Tec1-Ubc9. In contrast, fusing sumoylation-site mutant Tec1, i.e., Tec1^K54R, to Ubc9 did not significantly alter transcriptional activation and had a less effect on invasive growth. Taken together, these findings provide evidence for regulated sumoylation as a mechanism to modulate the activity of Tec1 and validate Ubc9 fusion-directed sumoylation as a useful approach for studying protein sumoylation.

Hog1 mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) interrupts signal transduction between the Kss1 MAPK and the Tec1 transcription factor to maintain pathway specificity

In Saccharomyces cerevisiae, the mating, filamentous growth (FG), and high-osmolarity glycerol (HOG) mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) signaling pathways share components and yet mediate distinct responses to different extracellular signals. Cross talk is suppressed between the mating and FG pathways because mating signaling induces the destruction of the FG transcription factor Tec1. We show here that HOG pathway activation results in phosphorylation of the FG MAPK, Kss1, and the MAPKK, Ste7. However, FG transcription is not activated because HOG signaling prevents the activation of Tec1. In contrast to the mating pathway, we find that the mechanism involves the inhibition of DNA binding by Tec1 rather than its destruction. We also find that nuclear accumulation of Tec1 is not affected by HOG signaling. Inhibition by Hog1 is apparently indirect since it does not require any of the consensus S/TP MAPK phosphorylation sites on Tec1, its DNA-binding partner Ste12, or the associated regulators Dig1 or Dig2. It also does not require the consensus MAPK sites of the Ste11 activator Ste50, in contrast to a recent proposal for a role for negative feedback in specificity. Our results demonstrate that HOG signaling interrupts the FG pathway signal transduction between the phosphorylation of Kss1 and the activation of DNA binding by Tec1.