Multiple mechanisms provide rapid and stringent glucose repression of GAL gene expression in Saccharomyces cerevisiae

Inference of gene regulatory networks from genome-wide knockout fitness data

Motivation: Genome-wide fitness is an emerging type of high-throughput biological data generated for individual organisms by creating libraries of knockouts, subjecting them to broad ranges of environmental conditions, and measuring the resulting clone-specific fitnesses. Since fitness is an organism-scale measure of gene regulatory network behaviour, it may offer certain advantages when insights into such phenotypical and functional features are of primary interest over individual gene expression. Previous works have shown that genome-wide fitness data can be used to uncover novel gene regulatory interactions, when compared with results of more conventional gene expression analysis. Yet, to date, few algorithms have been proposed for systematically using genome-wide mutant fitness data for gene regulatory network inference.

Results: In this article, we describe a model and propose an inference algorithm for using fitness data from knockout libraries to identify underlying gene regulatory networks. Unlike most prior methods, the presented approach captures not only structural, but also dynamical and non-linear nature of biomolecular systems involved. A state–space model with non-linear basis is used for dynamically describing gene regulatory networks. Network structure is then elucidated by estimating unknown model parameters. Unscented Kalman filter is used to cope with the non-linearities introduced in the model, which also enables the algorithm to run in on-line mode for practical use. Here, we demonstrate that the algorithm provides satisfying results for both synthetic data as well as empirical measurements of GAL network in yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae and TyrR–LiuR network in bacteria Shewanella oneidensis.

Availability: MATLAB code and datasets are available to download at http://www.duke.edu/∼lw174/Fitness.zip and http://genomics.lbl.gov/supplemental/fitness-bioinf/

Contact:wangx@ee.columbia.edu or mssamoilov@lbl.gov

Supplementary information:Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online

An improved short-lived fluorescent protein transcriptional reporter for Saccharomyces cerevisiae

Ideal reporter genes for temporal transcription programmes have short half-lives that restrict their detection to the window in which their transcripts are present and translated. In an effort to meet this criterion for reporters of transcription in individual living cells, we adapted the ubiquitin fusion strategy for programmable N-end rule degradation to generate an N-degron version of green fluorescent protein (GFP) with a half-life of ~7 min. The GFP variant we used here (designated GFP*) has excellent fluorescence brightness and maturation properties, which make the destabilized reporter well suited for tracking the induction and attenuation kinetics of gene expression in living cells. These attributes are illustrated by its ability to track galactose- and pheromone-induced transcription in S. cerevisiae. We further show that the fluorescence measurements using the short-lived N-degron GFP* reporter gene accurately predict the transient mRNA profile of the prototypical pheromone-induced FUS1 gene.

Metabolic engineering of Saccharomyces cerevisiae: a key cell factory platform for future biorefineries

Metabolic engineering is the enabling science of development of efficient cell factories for the production of fuels, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, and food ingredients through microbial fermentations. The yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae is a key cell factory already used for the production of a wide range of industrial products, and here we review ongoing work, particularly in industry, on using this organism for the production of butanol, which can be used as biofuel, and isoprenoids, which can find a wide range of applications including as pharmaceuticals and as biodiesel. We also look into how engineering of yeast can lead to improved uptake of sugars that are present in biomass hydrolyzates, and hereby allow for utilization of biomass as feedstock in the production of fuels and chemicals employing S. cerevisiae. Finally, we discuss the perspectives of how technologies from systems biology and synthetic biology can be used to advance metabolic engineering of yeast.

Life-history evolution and density-dependent growth in experimental populations of yeast

We studied the evolution of the correlation between growth rate r and yield K in experimental lineages of the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae. First, we isolated a single clone every approximately 250 generations from each of eight populations selected in a glucose-limited medium for 5000 generations at approximately 6.6 population doublings per day (20 clones per line × 8 lines) and measured its growth rate and yield in a new, galactose-limited medium (with ∼1.3 doubling per day). For most lines, r on galactose increased throughout the 5000 generations of selection on glucose whereas K on galactose declined. Next, we selected these 160 glucose-adapted clones in the galactose environment for approximately 120 generations and measured changes in r and K in galactose. In general, growth rate increased and yield declined, and clones that initially grew slowly on galactose improved more than did faster clones. We found a negative correlation between r and K among clones both within each line and across all clones. We provide evidence that this relationship is not heritable and is a negative environmental correlation rather than a genetic trade-off.

Stochastic signalling rewires the interaction map of a multiple feedback network during yeast evolution

During evolution, genetic networks are rewired through strengthening or weakening their interactions to develop new regulatory schemes. In the galactose network, the GAL1/GAL3 paralogues and the GAL2 gene enhance their own expression mediated by the Gal4p transcriptional activator. The wiring strength in these feedback loops is set by the number of Gal4p binding sites. Here we show using synthetic circuits that multiplying the binding sites increases the expression of a gene under the direct control of an activator, but this enhancement is not fed back in the circuit. The feedback loops are rather activated by genes that have frequent stochastic bursts and fast RNA decay rates. In this way, rapid adaptation to galactose can be triggered even by weakly expressed genes. Our results indicate that nonlinear stochastic transcriptional responses enable feedback loops to function autonomously, or contrary to what is dictated by the strength of interactions enclosing the circuit.

A negative feedback loop at the nuclear periphery regulates GAL gene expression

Examination of the role of the nuclear localization of the GAL gene locus shows that localization to the periphery upon induction dampens gene expression and is required for rapid repression after inactivation. Thus GAL gene movement to the nuclear periphery is part of a negative feedback enabling a rapid response to changes in the environment.

The genome is nonrandomly organized within the nucleus, but it remains unclear how gene position affects gene expression. Silenced genes have frequently been found associated with the nuclear periphery, and the environment at the periphery is believed to be refractory to transcriptional activation. However, in budding yeast, several highly regulated classes of genes, including the GAL7-10-1 gene cluster, are known to translocate to the nuclear periphery concurrent with their activation. To investigate the role of gene positioning on GAL gene expression, we monitored the effects of mutations that disrupt the interaction between the GAL locus and the periphery or synthetically tethered the locus to the periphery. Localization to the nuclear periphery was found to dampen initial GAL gene induction and was required for rapid repression after gene inactivation, revealing a function for the nuclear periphery in repressing endogenous GAL gene expression. Our results do not support a gene-gating model in which GAL gene interaction with the nuclear pore ensures rapid gene expression, but instead they suggest that a repressive environment at the nuclear periphery establishes a negative feedback loop that enables the GAL locus to respond rapidly to changes in environmental conditions.

Microbial production of indolylglucosinolate through engineering of a multi-gene pathway in a versatile yeast expression platform

Epidemiological studies have shown that consumption of cruciferous vegetables, such as, broccoli and cabbages, is associated with a reduced risk of developing cancer. This phenomenon has been attributed to specific glucosinolates among the ~30 glucosinolates that are typically present as natural products characteristic of cruciferous plants. Accordingly, there has been a strong interest to produce these compounds in microbial cell factories as it will allow production of selected beneficial glucosinolates. We have developed a versatile platform for stable expression of multi-gene pathways in the yeast, Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Introduction of the seven-step pathway of indolylglucosinolate from Arabidopsis thaliana to yeast resulted in the first successful production of glucosinolates in a microbial host. The production of indolylglucosinolate was further optimized by substituting supporting endogenous yeast activities with plant-derived enzymes. Production of indolylglucosinolate serves as a proof-of-concept for our expression platform, and provides a basis for large-scale microbial production of specific glucosinolates for the benefit of human health.

Introduction and expression of genes for metabolic engineering applications in Saccharomyces cerevisiae

Metabolic pathway engineering in the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae leads to improved production of a wide range of compounds, ranging from ethanol (from biomass) to natural products such as sesquiterpenes. The introduction of multienzyme pathways requires precise control over the level and timing of expression of the associated genes. Gene number and promoter strength/regulation are two critical control points, and multiple studies have focused on modulating these in yeast. This MiniReview focuses on methods for introducing genes and controlling their copy number and on the many promoters (both constitutive and inducible) that have been successfully employed. The advantages and disadvantages of the methods will be presented, and applications to pathway engineering will be highlighted.

Characterizing the memory of the GAL regulatory network in Saccharomyces cerevisiae

Genetic regulatory networks respond dynamically to perturbations in the intracellular and extracellular environments of an organism. The GAL system in the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae has evolved to utilize galactose as an alternative carbon and energy source, in the absence of glucose in the environment. We present a dynamic model for GAL system in Saccharomyces cerevisiae, which includes a novel mechanism for Gal3p activation upon induction with galactose. The modification enables the model to simulate the experimental observation that in absence of galactose, oversynthesis of Gal3p can also induce the GAL system. We then characterize the memory of the GAL system as the domain of attraction of the steady states.

External control of the GAL network in S. cerevisiae: a view from control theory

While there is a vast literature on the control systems that cells utilize to regulate their own state, there is little published work on the formal application of control theory to the external regulation of cellular functions. This paper chooses the GAL network in S. cerevisiae as a well understood benchmark example to demonstrate how control theory can be employed to regulate intracellular mRNA levels via extracellular galactose. Based on a mathematical model reduced from the GAL network, we have demonstrated that a galactose dose necessary to drive and maintain the desired GAL genes' mRNA levels can be calculated in an analytic form. And thus, a proportional feedback control can be designed to precisely regulate the level of mRNA. The benefits of the proposed feedback control are extensively investigated in terms of stability and parameter sensitivity. This paper demonstrates that feedback control can both significantly accelerate the process to precisely regulate mRNA levels and enhance the robustness of the overall cellular control system.

Determination of intracellular RNA folding rates using self-cleaving RNAs

We have developed a system that relies on RNA self-cleavage to report quantitatively on assembly of RNA structures in vivo. Self-cleaving RNA sequences are inserted into mRNAs or snoRNAs and expressed in yeast under the control of a regulated promoter. Chimeric RNAs that contain self-cleaving ribozymes turn over faster than chimeric RNAs that contain a mutationally inactivated ribozyme by an amount that reflects the rate at which the ribozyme folds and self-cleaves. A key feature of this system is the choice of assay conditions that selectively monitor intracellular assembly and self-cleavage by suppressing further ribozyme activity during the analysis.

Improvement of galactose induction system in Saccharomyces cerevisiae

Here we report a significant enhancement of galactose response without altering the characteristics of glucose repression. To improve the galactose response, we fabricated transgenic yeasts harboring HIS3pro-GAL1, HIS3pro-GAL2 and GAL10pro-GAL4, and evaluated the synergistic effects of these three genes by immunoblot and flow cytometry analyses.

Gene-environment interactions at nucleotide resolution

Interactions among genes and the environment are a common source of phenotypic variation. To characterize the interplay between genetics and the environment at single nucleotide resolution, we quantified the genetic and environmental interactions of four quantitative trait nucleotides (QTN) that govern yeast sporulation efficiency. We first constructed a panel of strains that together carry all 32 possible combinations of the 4 QTN genotypes in 2 distinct genetic backgrounds. We then measured the sporulation efficiencies of these 32 strains across 8 controlled environments. This dataset shows that variation in sporulation efficiency is shaped largely by genetic and environmental interactions. We find clear examples of QTN:environment, QTN: background, and environment:background interactions. However, we find no QTN:QTN interactions that occur consistently across the entire dataset. Instead, interactions between QTN only occur under specific combinations of environment and genetic background. Thus, what might appear to be a QTN:QTN interaction in one background and environment becomes a more complex QTN:QTN:environment:background interaction when we consider the entire dataset as a whole. As a result, the phenotypic impact of a set of QTN alleles cannot be predicted from genotype alone. Our results instead demonstrate that the effects of QTN and their interactions are inextricably linked both to genetic background and to environmental variation.

Phenotypic variation among individuals is caused by naturally occurring genetic differences, or alleles. The relationship between an allele and the phenotype is extremely complex; for example, the effect of an allele often depends upon both the environment and the individual's genetic background. To better understand these complex relationships, we examined the effects of four quantitative trait nucleotides (QTN) in three genes that cause variation in sporulation efficiency between vineyard and oak tree strains of yeast. We measured the effects of the QTN while varying both the genetic makeup of the strains and their growth environments. We found that the effects of each of the four QTN alleles depended upon the genotypes at the other QTN, the growth environment, and whether the strain carried the oak or vineyard parent genome. There were no simple rules that describe the effects of the alleles across all environments; instead, detailed models were needed to account for environmental and genetic variation in order to predict the effects of alleles in specific individuals.

Experimental and steady-state analysis of the GAL regulatory system in Kluyveromyces lactis

The galactose uptake mechanism in yeast is a well-studied regulatory network. The regulatory players in the galactose regulatory mechanism (GAL system) are conserved in Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Kluyveromyces lactis, but the molecular mechanisms that occur as a result of the molecular interactions between them are different. The key differences in the GAL system of K. lactis relative to that of S. cerevisiae are: (a) the autoregulation of KlGAL4; (b) the dual role of KlGal1p as a metabolizing enzyme as well as a galactose-sensing protein; (c) the shuttling of KlGal1p between nucleus and cytoplasm; and (d) the nuclear confinement of KlGal80p. A steady-state model was used to elucidate the roles of these molecular mechanisms in the transcriptional response of the GAL system. The steady-state results were validated experimentally using measurements of beta-galactosidase to represent the expression for genes having two binding sites. The results showed that the autoregulation of the synthesis of activator KlGal4p is responsible for the leaky expression of GAL genes, even at high glucose concentrations. Furthermore, GAL gene expression in K. lactis shows low expression levels because of the limiting function of the bifunctional protein KlGal1p towards the induction process in order to cope with the need for the metabolism of lactose/galactose. The steady-state model of the GAL system of K. lactis provides an opportunity to compare with the design prevailing in S. cerevisiae. The comparison indicates that the existence of a protein, Gal3p, dedicated to the sensing of galactose in S. cerevisiae as a result of genome duplication has resulted in a system which metabolizes galactose efficiently.

A strategy for constructing aneuploid yeast strains by transient nondisjunction of a target chromosome

Background

Most methods for constructing aneuploid yeast strains that have gained a specific chromosome rely on spontaneous failures of cell division fidelity. In Saccharomyces cerevisiae, extra chromosomes can be obtained when errors in meiosis or mitosis lead to nondisjunction, or when nuclear breakdown occurs in heterokaryons. We describe a strategy for constructing N+1 disomes that does not require such spontaneous failures. The method combines two well-characterized genetic tools: a conditional centromere that transiently blocks disjunction of one specific chromosome, and a duplication marker assay that identifies disomes among daughter cells. To test the strategy, we targeted chromosomes III, IV, and VI for duplication.

Results

The centromere of each chromosome was replaced by a centromere that can be blocked by growth in galactose, and ura3::HIS3, a duplication marker. Transient exposure to galactose induced the appearance of colonies carrying duplicated markers for chromosomes III or IV, but not VI. Microarray-based comparative genomic hybridization (CGH) confirmed that disomic strains carrying extra chromosome III or IV were generated. Chromosome VI contains several genes that are known to be deleterious when overexpressed, including the beta-tubulin gene TUB2. To test whether a tubulin stoichiometry imbalance is necessary for the apparent lethality caused by an extra chromosome VI, we supplied the parent strain with extra copies of the alpha-tubulin gene TUB1, then induced nondisjunction. Galactose-dependent chromosome VI disomes were produced, as revealed by CGH. Some chromosome VI disomes also carried extra, unselected copies of additional chromosomes.

Conclusion

This method causes efficient nondisjunction of a targeted chromosome and allows resulting disomic cells to be identified and maintained. We used the method to test the role of tubulin imbalance in the apparent lethality of disomic chromosome VI. Our results indicate that a tubulin imbalance is necessary for disomic VI lethality, but it may not be the only dosage-dependent effect.

Energetic limits to metabolic flexibility: responses of Saccharomyces cerevisiae to glucose-galactose transitions

Glucose is the favoured carbon source for Saccharomyces cerevisiae, and the Leloir pathway for galactose utilization is only induced in the presence of galactose during glucose-derepressed conditions. The goal of this study was to investigate the dynamics of glucose-galactose transitions. To this end, well-controlled, glucose-limited chemostat cultures were switched to galactose-excess conditions. Surprisingly, galactose was not consumed upon a switch to galactose excess under anaerobic conditions. However, the transcripts of the Leloir pathway were highly increased upon galactose excess under both aerobic and anaerobic conditions. Protein and enzyme-activity assays showed that impaired galactose consumption under anaerobiosis coincided with the absence of the Leloir-pathway proteins. Further results showed that absence of protein synthesis was not caused by glucose-mediated translation inhibition. Analysis of adenosine nucleotide pools revealed a fast decrease of the energy charge after the switch from glucose to galactose under anaerobic conditions. Similar results were obtained when glucose-galactose transitions were analysed under aerobic conditions with a respiratory-deficient strain. It is concluded that under fermentative conditions, the energy charge was too low to allow synthesis of the Leloir proteins. Hence, this study conclusively shows that the intracellular energy status is an important factor in the metabolic flexibility of S. cerevisiae upon changes in its environment.

Specialized sugar sensing in diverse fungi

S. cerevisiae senses glucose and galactose differently. Glucose is detected through sensors that reside in the cellular plasma membrane. When activated, the sensors initiate a signal-transduction cascade that ultimately inactivates the Rgt1 transcriptional repressor by causing degradation of its corepressors Mth1 and Std1. This results in the expression of many HXT genes encoding glucose transporters. The ensuing flood of glucose into the cell activates Mig1, a transcriptional repressor that mediates "glucose repression" of many genes, including the GAL genes; hence, glucose sensing hinders galactose utilization. Galactose is sensed in the cytoplasm via Gal3. Upon binding galactose (and ATP), Gal3 sequesters the Gal80 protein, thereby emancipating the Gal4 transcriptional activator of the GAL genes. Gal4 also activates expression of MTH1, encoding a corepressor critical for Rgt1 function. Thus, galactose inhibits glucose assimilation by encouraging repression of HXT genes. C. albicans senses glucose similarly to S. cerevisiae but does not sense galactose through Gal3-Gal80-Gal4. Its genome harbors no GAL80 ortholog, and the severely truncated CaGal4 does not regulate CaGAL genes. We present evidence that C. albicans senses galactose with its Hgt4 glucose sensor, a capability that is enabled by transcriptional "rewiring" of its sugar-sensing signal-transduction pathways. We suggest that galactose sensing through Hgt4 is ancestral in fungi.

Role of chromatin states in transcriptional memory

Establishment of cellular memory and its faithful propagation is critical for successful development of multicellular organisms. As pluripotent cells differentiate, choices in cell fate are inherited and maintained by their progeny throughout the lifetime of the organism. A major factor in this process is the epigenetic inheritance of specific transcriptional states or transcriptional memory. In this review, we discuss chromatin transitions and mechanisms by which they are inherited by subsequent generations. We also discuss illuminating cases of cellular memory in budding yeast and evaluate whether transcriptional memory in yeast is nuclear or cytoplasmically inherited.

Reconstruction and logical modeling of glucose repression signaling pathways in Saccharomyces cerevisiae

Background

In the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae, the presence of high levels of glucose leads to an array of down-regulatory effects known as glucose repression. This process is complex due to the presence of feedback loops and crosstalk between different pathways, complicating the use of intuitive approaches to analyze the system.

Results

We established a logical model of yeast glucose repression, formalized as a hypergraph. The model was constructed based on verified regulatory interactions and it includes 50 gene transcripts, 22 proteins, 5 metabolites and 118 hyperedges. We computed the logical steady states of all nodes in the network in order to simulate wildtype and deletion mutant responses to different sugar availabilities. Evaluation of the model predictive power was achieved by comparing changes in the logical state of gene nodes with transcriptome data. Overall, we observed 71% true predictions, and analyzed sources of errors and discrepancies for the remaining.

Conclusion

Though the binary nature of logical (Boolean) models entails inherent limitations, our model constitutes a primary tool for storing regulatory knowledge, searching for incoherencies in hypotheses and evaluating the effect of deleting regulatory elements involved in glucose repression.

Dimerization of yeast transcription factors Ino2 and Ino4 is regulated by precursors of phospholipid biosynthesis mediated by Opi1 repressor

Structural genes of phospholipid biosynthesis in the yeast S. cerevisiae are activated by the heterodimeric transcription factor Ino2 + Ino4, binding to ICRE (inositol/choline-responsive element) promoter motifs. In the presence of phospholipid precursors inositol and choline, Ino2-dependent activation is inhibited by the Opi1 repressor which interacts with Ino2. In this work, we systematically investigated the importance of regulatory mechanisms possibly affecting ICRE-dependent gene expression. Autoregulatory expression of INO2, INO4 and OPI1 was abolished by promoter exchange experiments, showing that autoregulation of regulators contributes to the degree of differential gene expression but is not responsible for it. Using GFP fusion proteins, Ino2 and Ino4 were found to localize to the nucleus under conditions of repression and derepression. Interestingly, nuclear localization of Ino2 required a functional INO4 gene. Targeting of a lexA-Ino2 fusion to a heterologous promoter containing lexA operator motifs revealed a constitutive gene activation which was not influenced by phospholipid precursors. We could show that Ino2-dependent activation of a lexA-Ino4 fusion is affected by inositol and choline. Since gene activation required interaction of Ino2 and Ino4 mediated by their helix-loop-helix domains, formation/dissociation of the heterodimer must be considered as an important step of target gene regulation.

Galactose metabolism in yeast-structure and regulation of the leloir pathway enzymes and the genes encoding them

The enzymes of the Leloir pathway catalyze the conversion of galactose to a more metabolically useful version, glucose-6-phosphate. This pathway is required as galactose itself cannot be used for glycolysis directly. In most organisms, including the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae, five enzymes are required to catalyze this conversion: a galactose mutarotase, a galactokinase, a galactose-1-phosphate uridyltransferase, a UDP-galactose-4-epimerase, and a phosphoglucomutase. In yeast, the genes encoding these enzymes are tightly controlled at the level of transcription and are only transcribed under specific sets of conditions. In the presence of glucose, the genes encoding the Leloir pathway enzymes (often called the GAL genes) are repressed through the action of a transcriptional repressor Mig1p. In the presence of galactose, but in the absence of glucose, the concerted actions of three other proteins Gal4p, Gal80p, and Gal3p, and two small molecules (galactose and ATP) enable the rapid and high-level activation of the GAL genes. The precise molecular mechanism of the GAL genetic switch is controversial. Recent work on solving the three-dimensional structures of the various GAL enzymes proteins and the GAL transcriptional switch proteins affords a unique opportunity to delve into the precise, and potentially unambiguous, molecular mechanism of a highly exploited transcriptional circuit. Understanding the details of the transcriptional and metabolic events that occur in this pathway can be used as a paradigm for understanding the integration of metabolism and transcriptional control more generally, and will assist our understanding of fundamental biochemical processes and how these might be exploited.

Modeling simultaneous glucose and xylose uptake in Saccharomyces cerevisiae from kinetics and gene expression of sugar transporters

A kinetic model for glucose and xylose co-substrate uptake in Saccharomyces cerevisiae is presented. The model couples the enzyme kinetics with the glucose-dependent genetic expression of the individual transport proteins. This novel approach implies several options for optimizing the co-substrate utilization. Interestingly, the simulations predict a maximum xylose uptake rate at a glucose concentration >0 g/L, which suggests that the genetic expressions of the considered transport proteins are of importance when optimizing the xylose uptake. This was also evident in fed-batch simulations, where a distinct optimal glucose addition rate >0 g/L x h was found. Strategies for improving the co-substrate utilization by genetic engineering of the transport systems are furthermore suggested based on simulations.

Pleiotropy and GAL pathway degeneration in yeast

Traits that do not contribute to fitness are expected to be lost during the course of evolution, either as a result of selection or drift. The Leloir pathway of galactose metabolism (GAL) is an extensively studied metabolic pathway that degenerated on at least three independent occasions during the evolutionary diversification of yeasts, suggesting that the pathway is costly to maintain in environments that lack galactose. Here I test this hypothesis by competing GAL pathway deletion mutants of Saccharomyces cerevisiae against an isogenic strain with an intact GAL pathway under conditions where expression of the pathway is normally induced, repressed, or uninduced. These experiments do not support the hypothesis that pleiotropy drives GAL pathway degeneration, because mutations that knock out individual GAL genes do not tend to increase fitness in the absence of galactose. At a molecular level, this result can be explained by the fact that yeast uses inexpensive regulatory proteins to tightly regulate the expression of structural genes that are costly to express. I argue that these results have general relevance for our understanding of the fitness consequences of gene disruption in yeast.

Ras-pathway has a dual role in yeast galactose metabolism

In the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae the genes involved in galactose metabolism (GAL1,7,10) are transcriptionally activated more than a 1000-fold in the presence of galactose as the sole carbon source in the culture media. In the present work, we monitored the activity of the GAL10 gene promoter in different Ras-cAMP genetic backgrounds. We demonstrate that overexpression of C-terminus of the nucleotide exchange factor Cdc25p stimulates GAL10 transcription in yeast strains carrying the contemporary deletion of both RAS genes. Moreover, the deletion of the chromosomal CDC25 gene provokes impaired growth on galactose based media in yeast strain lacking both RAS genes and adenylate cyclase (whose viability is assured by the presence of the Bcy1-11 allele). Surprisingly, reconstitution of the Ras-pathway inhibits GAL10-promoter activation. Activation of GAL10 gene promoter is indeed possible in the presence of Ras protein but only in strains with chromosomal deletion of adenylate cyclase. These results indicate a dual role of Ras-pathway on galactose metabolism and suggest that Cdc25p has a Ras-independent role in cellular metabolism.

Genome-wide transcriptional plasticity underlies cellular adaptation to novel challenge

By recruiting the essential HIS3 gene to the GAL regulatory system and switching to a repressing glucose medium, we confronted yeast cells with a novel challenge they had not encountered before along their history in evolution.

Adaptation to this challenge involved a global transcriptional response of a sizeable fraction of the genome, which relaxed on the time scale of the population adaptation, of order of 10 generations.

For a large fraction of the responding genes there is no simple biological interpretation, connecting them to the specific cellular demands imposed by the novel challenge.

Strikingly, repeating the experiment did not reproduce similar transcription patterns neither in the transient phase nor in the adapted state in glucose.

These results suggest that physiological selection operates on the new metabolic configurations generated by the non-specific large scale transcriptional response to eventually stabilize an adaptive state.

Cells adjust their transcriptional state to accommodate environmental and genetic perturbations. Some common perturbations, such as changes in nutrient composition, elicit well-characterized transcriptional responses that can be understood by simple engineering-like design principles as satisfying specific demands imposed by the perturbation. However, cells also have the ability to adapt to novel and unforeseen challenges. This ability is central in realizing the evolvability potential of cells as they respond to dramatic genetic or environmental changes along evolution. Little is known about the mechanisms underlying such adaptations to novel challenges; in particular, the role of the transcriptional regulatory network in such adaptations has not been characterized. Genome-wide measurements have revealed that, in many cases, perturbations lead to a global transcriptional response involving a sizeable fraction of the genome (Gasch et al, 2000; Jelinsky et al, 2000; Causton et al, 2001; Ideker et al, 2001; Lai et al, 2005). Such global behavior suggests that general collective properties of the genetic network, rather than specific pre-designed pathways, determine an important part of the transcriptional response. It is not known however what fraction of genes within such massive transcriptional responses is essential to the specific cellular demands. It is also unknown whether the non-pre-designed part of the response can have a functional role in adaptation to novel challenges.

To study these questions, we confronted yeast cells with a novel challenge they had not encountered before along their history in evolution. A strain of the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae was engineered to recruit the gene HIS3, an essential enzyme from the histidine biosynthesis pathway (Hinnebusch, 1992), to the GAL regulatory system, responsible for galactose utilization (Stolovicki et al, 2006). The GAL system is known to be strongly repressed when the cells are exposed to glucose. Therefore, upon switching to a medium containing glucose and lacking histidine, the GAL system and with it HIS3 are highly repressed immediately following the switch and the cells encounter a severe challenge. We have recently shown that a cell population carrying this rewired genome can adapt to grow competitively in a chemostat in a medium containing pure glucose (Stolovicki et al, 2006). This adaptation occurred on a timescale of ∼10 generations; applying a stronger environmental pressure in the form of a competitive inhibitor to HIS3 (3AT) resulted in a similar adaptation albeit with a longer timescale. Figure 1 shows the dynamics of the population's cell density (blue lines, measured by OD) following a medium switch from galactose to glucose in the chemostat without (A) and with (B) 3AT. The experiments revealed that adaptation occurs on physiological timescales (much shorter than required by spontaneous random mutations), but the mechanisms underlying this adaptation have remained unclear (Stolovicki et al, 2006).

Yeast cells had not encountered recruitment of HIS3 to the GAL system along their evolutionary history, and their genome could not possibly have been selected to specifically address glucose repression of HIS3. This experiment, therefore, provides a unique opportunity to characterize the spontaneous transcriptional response during adaptation to a novel challenge and to assess the functional role of the regulatory system in this adaptation. We used DNA microarrays to measure the genome-wide expression levels at time points along the adaptation process, with and without 3AT. These measurements revealed that a sizeable fraction of the genome responded by induction or repression to the switch into glucose. Superimposed on the OD traces, Figure 1 shows the results of a clustering analysis of the expression of genes as measured by the arrays along time in the experiments. This analysis revealed two dominant clusters, each containing hundreds of genes in each experiment, which responded to the medium switch to glucose by a strong transient induction or repression followed by relaxation to steady state on the timescale of the adaptation process, ∼ 10 generations. The two clusters in each experiment show similar but opposite dynamics.

A detailed analysis of the gene content in the two clusters revealed that only a small portion of the response was induced by a change in carbon source (15% overlap between the corresponding clusters in the two experiments, with and without 3AT). Moreover, it revealed a very low overlap with the universal stress response observed for a wide range of environmental stresses (Gasch et al, 2000; Causton et al, 2001) and with the typical response to amino-acid starvation (Natarajan et al, 2001). Additionally, all known specific responses to stress in the literature are characterized by transient induction or repression with relaxation to steady state within a generation time (Gasch et al, 2000; Koerkamp et al, 2002; Wu et al, 2004), whereas in our experiments relaxation of the transcriptional response occurs over many generations. Taken together, these results show that the transcriptional response observed here is neither a metabolic response to the change in carbon source nor is it a standard response to stress or amino-acid starvation. This raises the possibility that it is a spontaneous collective response that is largely composed of genes that do not have a specific function. This possibility was tested directly by repeating the experiment with different populations and comparing their responses. This procedure revealed reproducible adaptation dynamics and steady states in terms of population density, but showed significantly different transcriptional transient responses and steady states for the two repeated experiments. Thus, a significant portion of the genes that changed their expression during the adaptation process do not have a well-defined and reproducible function in the challenging environment.

The application of a stronger environmental pressure in the form of 3AT had a dramatic effect on the global characteristics of the transcriptional response: it induced a markedly higher correlation among the hundreds of responding genes. Figure 3A compares the array data in color code for the two experiments. It is seen that the emergent pattern of transcription exhibits a higher degree of order by the introduction of high external pressure. Observation of the transcriptional patterns for specific metabolic pathways illustrates the different contributions to the correlated dynamics (Figure 3B–D). A general energetic module such as glycolysis exhibited similar patterns of induction and relaxation in experiments with and without 3AT (Figure 3B). However, in general, we found that more than one-third of the known metabolic modules (30 out of 88 modules described in KEGG) exhibited high expression correlation among their genes when the environmental pressure was high but not when it was low. As an example, Figure 3C shows the histidine biosynthesis pathway and Figure 3D the purine pathway. Note the highly ordered trajectories in the lower panels (with 3AT) compared to the disordered ones in the upper panels (no 3AT). This order extends also between genes belonging to different and even distant metabolic modules. It indicates that a global transcriptional regulatory mechanism is in operation, rather than a local specific one. Surprisingly, genes belonging to the same metabolic pathway exhibited simultaneous positively and negatively correlated dynamics. Thus, an important conclusion of this work is that the global transcriptional response to a novel challenge cannot be explained by a simple cellular or metabolic logic. This is to be expected if the response had not been specifically selected in evolution and was not pre-designed for the challenge.

Our data clearly reveal that the massive transcriptional response underlies the adaptation process to a novel challenge. The novelty of the challenge presented to the cells excludes the possibility that this response has been specifically selected toward this challenge. Thus, transcriptional regulation has dynamic properties resulting in a general massive nonspecific response to a novel perturbation. Such a response in turn allows for metabolic rearrangements, which by feeding back on transcription lead to adaptation of the cells to the unforeseen situation. The drastic change in the expression state of the cell opens multiple new metabolic pathways. Physiological selection works then on these multiple metabolic pathways to stabilize an adaptive state that causes relaxation of the perturbed expression pattern. This scenario, involving the creation of a library of possibilities and physiological selection over this library, is compatible with our understanding of a broad class of biological systems, placing the cellular metabolic/regulatory networks on the same footing as the neural or the immune systems (Gerhart and Kirschner, 1997).

Cells adjust their transcriptional state to accommodate environmental and genetic perturbations. An open question is to what extent transcriptional response to perturbations has been specifically selected along evolution. To test the possibility that transcriptional reprogramming does not need to be ‘pre-designed' to lead to an adaptive metabolic state on physiological timescales, we confronted yeast cells with a novel challenge they had not previously encountered. We rewired the genome by recruiting an essential gene, HIS3, from the histidine biosynthesis pathway to a foreign regulatory system, the GAL network responsible for galactose utilization. Switching medium to glucose in a chemostat caused repression of the essential gene and presented the cells with a severe challenge to which they adapted over approximately 10 generations. Using genome-wide expression arrays, we show here that a global transcriptional reprogramming (>1200 genes) underlies the adaptation. A large fraction of the responding genes is nonreproducible in repeated experiments. These results show that a nonspecific transcriptional response reflecting the natural plasticity of the regulatory network supports adaptation of cells to novel challenges.

Membrane entrapped Saccharomyces cerevisiae in a biosensor-like device as a generic rapid method to study cellular metabolism

We describe a new, faster and convenient method to study some metabolic characteristics - by the successful application of immobilized yeast cells (S. cerevisiae) in a microbial biosensor-like device. Microbial biosensors consist of microorganisms immobilized on the surface of a membrane or in a gel, in close contact with a transducer. Almost all works published to date have used biosensors for analyses in which a concentration-related property of the external medium is measured. A different approach is presented here; we have successfully used S. cerevisiae and a carbon dioxide electrode as the main components of a biosensor-like device, used as a proof of concept, for a system useful to characterize metabolic parameters of the microbial cells immobilized on a carbon dioxide electrode. The biosensor-like device we are presenting allows us to calculate Michaelis-Menten parameters related to the kinetics of transport and degradation of several carbohydrates (i.e., glucose, fructose, galactose, sucrose and xylose, with K(m(app)) of 6.0, 5.8, 0.9, 2.0, and 147 mM, respectively), and the study of the kinetics of expression of non-constitutive proteins related to the transport and degradation of galactose.

Engineering of GAL1 promoter-driven expression system with artificial transcription factors

We isolated and characterized artificial transcription factors (ATFs) that functionally activate GAL1 promoter in yeast. These ATFs transformed the yeast galactose-dependent GAL1 promoter system into a galactose-independent one. The ATFs were identified by screening a combinatorial library of zinc finger-containing transcription factors for components that activated the transcription of a reporter gene under the control of a truncated GAL1 promoter from which the GAL4p-binding sites were deleted. We also showed that these ATFs activate transcription from GAL1 promoter by binding directly to specific sequence elements in the promoter.

Alcoholic fermentation of carbon sources in biomass hydrolysates by Saccharomyces cerevisiae: current status

Fuel ethanol production from plant biomass hydrolysates by Saccharomyces cerevisiae is of great economic and environmental significance. This paper reviews the current status with respect to alcoholic fermentation of the main plant biomass-derived monosaccharides by this yeast. Wild-type S. cerevisiae strains readily ferment glucose, mannose and fructose via the Embden-Meyerhof pathway of glycolysis, while galactose is fermented via the Leloir pathway. Construction of yeast strains that efficiently convert other potentially fermentable substrates in plant biomass hydrolysates into ethanol is a major challenge in metabolic engineering. The most abundant of these compounds is xylose. Recent metabolic and evolutionary engineering studies on S. cerevisiae strains that express a fungal xylose isomerase have enabled the rapid and efficient anaerobic fermentation of this pentose. L: -Arabinose fermentation, based on the expression of a prokaryotic pathway in S. cerevisiae, has also been established, but needs further optimization before it can be considered for industrial implementation. In addition to these already investigated strategies, possible approaches for metabolic engineering of galacturonic acid and rhamnose fermentation by S. cerevisiae are discussed. An emerging and major challenge is to achieve the rapid transition from proof-of-principle experiments under 'academic' conditions (synthetic media, single substrates or simple substrate mixtures, absence of toxic inhibitors) towards efficient conversion of complex industrial substrate mixtures that contain synergistically acting inhibitors.

Overproduction and purification of RFC-related clamp loaders and PCNA-related clamps from Saccharomyces cerevisiae

The replication clamp PCNA and its loader RFC (Replication Factor C) are central factors required for processive replication and coordinated DNA repair. Recently, several additional related clamp loaders have been identified. These alternative clamp loaders contain the small Rfc2-5 subunits of RFC, but replace the large Rfc1 subunit by a pathway-specific alternative large subunit, Rad24 for the DNA damage checkpoint, Ctf18 for the establishment of sister chromatid cohesion, and Elg1 for a general function in chromosome stability. In order to define biochemical functions for these loaders, the loaders were overproduced in yeast and purified at a milligram scale. To aid in purification, the large subunit of each clamp loader was fused to a GST-tag that, after purification could be easily removed by a rhinoviral protease. This methodology yielded all clamp loaders in high yield and with high enzymatic activity. The yeast 9-1-1 checkpoint clamp, consisting of Rad17, Mec3, and Ddc1, was overproduced and purified in a similar manner.

A family of destabilized cyan fluorescent proteins as transcriptional reporters in S. cerevisiae

The 'programmable' features of the N-end rule degradation pathway and a ubiquitin fusion strategy were exploited to create a family of destabilized cyan fluorescent proteins (CFP) to be used as transcriptional reporters. The N-degron CFP reporters characterized in this report have half-lives of approximately 75, 50 and 5 min, but further modification of the N-degron signal sequences could readily generate additional variants within this range. These destabilized CFP reporters have been engineered into convenient plasmid constructs with features to enable their expression from upstream activating sequences of choice and to facilitate their targeted integration to the URA3-TIM9 intergenic region of chromosome V. The advantages and limitations of these reporters as temporal indicators of gene expression in living cells are illustrated by their application as reporters of galactose- and pheromone-induced transcription. The plasmid design we describe and the range of different stabilities that are theoretically feasible with this strategy make the N-degron CFP reporters easily adapted to a variety of applications.

An integrated model of glucose and galactose metabolism regulated by the GAL genetic switch

Glucose and galactose are two alternative carbon sources in yeast for energy production, producing CO2 and alcohol. The yeast needs to switch from glucose to galactose metabolism as required, by transcriptional regulation of the respective metabolic enzymes. This regulation is achieved mainly through the GAL genetic switch, in addition to glucose repression mechanism. This study integrates the two metabolic pathways with the genetic regulatory circuit using the GEPASI 3.30 simulation environment, and investigates the model behavior under various nutrient conditions. Our system is successful in achieving transcriptional upregulation of the galactose metabolizing enzymes as required. Under high glucose and high galactose concentrations, the in silico yeast chooses to metabolize glucose first, after which it resorts to using the galactose available. We also show what the preferred storage macromolecules are in different metabolic pathways.

A comparative analysis of the GAL genetic switch between not-so-distant cousins: Saccharomyces cerevisiae versus Kluyveromyces lactis

Despite their close phylogenetic relationship, Kluyveromyces lactis and Saccharomyces cerevisiae have adapted their carbon utilization systems to different environments. Although they share identities in the arrangement, sequence and functionality of their GAL gene set, both yeasts have evolved important differences in the GAL genetic switch in accordance to their relative preference for the utilization of galactose as a carbon source. This review provides a comparative overview of the GAL-specific regulatory network in S. cerevisiae and K. lactis, discusses the latest models proposed to explain the transduction of the galactose signal, and describes some of the particularities that both microorganisms display in their regulatory response to different carbon sources. Emphasis is placed on the potential for improved strategies in biotechnological applications using yeasts.

Mechanism of Transcription Factor Recruitment by Acidic Activators

Many transcriptional activators are intrinsically unstructured yet display unique, defined conformations when bound to target proteins. Target-induced folding provides a mechanism by which activators could form specific interactions with an array of structurally unrelated target proteins. Evidence for such a binding mechanism has been reported previously in the context of the interaction between the cancer-related c-Myc protein and the TATA-binding protein, which can be modeled as a two-step process in which a rapidly forming, low affinity complex slowly converts to a more stable form, consistent with a coupled binding and folding reaction. To test the generality of the target-induced folding model, we investigated the binding of two widely studied acidic activators, Gal4 and VP16, to a set of target proteins, including TATA-binding protein and the Swi1 and Snf5 subunits of the Swi/Snf chromatin remodeling complex. Using surface plasmon resonance, we show that these activator-target combinations also display bi-phasic kinetics suggesting two distinct steps. A fast initial binding phase that is inhibited by high ionic strength is followed by a slow phase that is favored by increased temperature. In all cases, overall affinity increases with temperature and, in most cases, with increased ionic strength. These results are consistent with a general mechanism for recruitment of transcriptional components to promoters by naturally occurring acidic activators, by which the initial contact is mediated predominantly through electrostatic interactions, whereas subsequent target-induced folding of the activator results in a stable complex.

Enhancement of cellular memory by reducing stochastic transitions

On induction of cell differentiation, distinct cell phenotypes are encoded by complex genetic networks. These networks can prevent the reversion of established phenotypes even in the presence of significant fluctuations. Here we explore the key parameters that determine the stability of cellular memory by using the yeast galactose-signalling network as a model system. This network contains multiple nested feedback loops. Of the two positive feedback loops, only the loop mediated by the cytoplasmic signal transducer Gal3p is able to generate two stable expression states with a persistent memory of previous galactose consumption states. The parallel loop mediated by the galactose transporter Gal2p only increases the expression difference between the two states. A negative feedback through the inhibitor Gal80p reduces the strength of the core positive feedback. Despite this, a constitutive increase in the Gal80p concentration tunes the system from having destabilized memory to having persistent memory. A model reveals that fluctuations are trapped more efficiently at higher Gal80p concentrations. Indeed, the rate at which single cells randomly switch back and forth between expression states was reduced. These observations provide a quantitative understanding of the stability and reversibility of cellular differentiation states.

Characteristics ofSaccharomyces cerevisiae gal1? andgal1?hxk2? mutants expressing recombinant proteins from theGAL promoter

Galactose can be used not only as an inducer of the GAL promoters, but also as a carbon source by Saccharomyces cerevisiae, which makes recombinant fermentation processes that use GAL promoters complicated and expensive. To overcome this problem during the cultivation of the recombinant strain expressing human serum albumin (HSA) from the GAL10 promoter, a gal1 Delta mutant strain was constructed and its induction kinetics investigated. As expected, the gal1 Delta strain did not use galactose, and showed high levels of HSA expression, even at extremely low galactose concentrations (0.05-0.1 g/L). However, the gal1 Delta strain produced much more ethanol, in a complex medium containing glucose, than the GAL1 strain. To improve the physiological properties of the gal1 Delta mutant strain as a host for heterologous protein production, a null mutation of either MIG1 or HXK2 was introduced into the gal1 Delta mutant strain, generating gal1 Delta mig1 Delta and gal1 Delta hxk2 Delta double strains. The gal1 Delta hxk2 Delta strain showed a decreased rate of ethanol synthesis, with an accelerated rate of ethanol consumption, compared to the gal1 Delta strain, whereas the gal1 Delta mig1 Delta strain showed similar patterns to the gal1 Delta strain. Furthermore, the gal1 Delta hxk2 Delta strain secreted much more recombinant proteins (HSA and HSA fusion proteins) than the other strains. The results suggest that the gal1 Delta hxk2 Delta strain would be useful for the large-scale production of heterologous proteins from the GAL10 promoter in S. cerevisiae.

A steady-state modeling approach to validate an in vivo mechanism of the GAL regulatory network in Saccharomyces cerevisiae

Cellular regulation is a result of complex interactions arising from DNA-protein and protein-protein binding, autoregulation, and compartmentalization and shuttling of regulatory proteins. Experiments in molecular biology have identified these mechanisms recruited by a regulatory network. Mathematical models may be used to complement the knowledge-base provided by in vitro experimental methods. Interactions identified by in vitro experiments can lead to the hypothesis of multiple candidate models explaining the in vivo mechanism. The equilibrium dissociation constants for the various interactions and the total component concentration constitute constraints on the candidate models. In this work, we identify the most plausible in vivo network by comparing the output response to the experimental data. We demonstrate the methodology using the GAL system of Saccharomyces cerevisiae for which the steady-state analysis reveals that Gal3p neither dimerizes nor shuttles between the cytoplasm and the nucleus.

Transient responses and adaptation to steady state in a eukaryotic gene regulation system

Understanding the structure and functionality of eukaryotic gene regulation systems is of fundamental importance in many areas of biology. While most recent studies focus on static or short-term properties, measuring the long-term dynamics of these networks under controlled conditions is necessary for their complete characterization. We demonstrate adaptive dynamics in a well-known system of metabolic regulation, the GAL system in the yeast S. cerevisiae. This is a classic model for a eukaryotic genetic switch, induced by galactose and repressed by glucose. We followed the expression of a reporter gfp under a GAL promoter at single-cell resolution in large population of yeast cells. Experiments were conducted for long time scales, several generations, while controlling the environment in continuous culture. This combination enabled us, for the first time, to distinguish between transient responses and steady state. We find that both galactose induction and glucose repression are only transient responses. Over several generations, the system converges to a single robust steady state, independent of external conditions. Thus, at steady state the GAL network loses its hallmark functionality as a sensitive carbon source rheostat. This result suggests that, while short-term dynamics are determined by specific modular responses, over long time scales inter-modular interactions take over and shape a robust steady state response of the regulatory system.

The Snf1 kinase controls glucose repression in yeast by modulating interactions between the Mig1 repressor and the Cyc8-Tup1 co-repressor

Among lower eukaryotes, glucose repression is a conserved, widely spread mechanism regulating carbon catabolism. The yeast Snf1 kinase, the Mig1 DNA-binding repressor and the Mig1-interacting co-repressor complex Cyc8(Ssn6)-Tup1 are central components of this pathway. Previous experiments suggested that cytoplasmic translocation of Mig1, upon its phosphorylation by Snf1 in the nucleus, is the key regulatory step for releasing glucose repression. In this report we re-evaluate this model. We establish the coordinated repressive action of Mig1 and Cyc8-Tup1 on GAL1 transcription, but we find that Cyc8-Tup1 is not tethered by Mig1 to the promoter DNA. We demonstrate that both negative regulators occupy GAL1 continuously under either repression or activation conditions, although the majority of the Mig1 is redistributed to the cytoplasm upon activation. We show that Snf1-dependent phosphorylation of Mig1 abolishes interaction with Cyc8-Tup1, and we propose that regulation of this interaction, not the Mig1 cytoplasmic localization, is the molecular switch that controls transcriptional repression/de-repression.

MIG1-dependent and MIG1-independent regulation of GAL gene expression in Saccharomyces cerevisiae: role of Imp2p

Imp2p (Yil154c) is a transcriptional activator involved in glucose derepression of the maltose, galactose and raffinose utilization pathways and in resistance to thermal, oxidative or osmotic stress. We analysed the role of Imp2 in the regulation of GAL genes. Imp2 was shown to have a positive effect on glucose derepression of Leloir pathway genes and their activator gene GAL4. The effect of Imp2 on galactose metabolism was shown to be partially dependent on Mig1p. The Mig1-independent role depends on Nrg1p. However, disruption of both MIG1 and NRG1 only partially relieves the glucose repression of GAL genes in the Deltaimp2 mutant, indicating that Imp2 must also have other function(s). Moreover, the interaction between IMP2 and GAL6/BLH1, a recently isolated gene involved in the regulation of GAL genes that shares with Imp2 the ability to protect cells from the glycopeptide bleomycin, was also analysed. The results suggest a major role of Imp2 in a GAL6-independent pathway.

The Snf1 kinase of the filamentous fungus Hypocrea jecorina phosphorylates regulation-relevant serine residues in the yeast carbon catabolite repressor Mig1 but not in the filamentous fungal counterpart Cre1

In Saccharomyces cerevisiae, the SNF1 gene product phosphorylates the carbon catabolite repressor protein Mig1 under conditions when glucose is limiting, thereby relieving the fungus from catabolite repression. We have investigated whether the corresponding counterpart of filamentous fungi-the Cre1 protein-is also phosphorylated by Snf1. To this end, snf1, an ortholog of SNF1, was isolated from the ascomycete Hypocrea jecorina. The gene encodes a protein with high similarity to Snf1 kinases from other eukaryotes in its N-terminal catalytic domain, but little similarity in the C-terminal half of the protein, albeit some short aa-areas were detected, however, which are conserved in filamentous fungi and in yeast. Expression of snf1 is independent of the carbon source. An overexpressed catalytic domain of H. jecorina Snf1 readily phosphorylated yeast Mig1, but not a Mig1 mutant form, in which all four identified Snf1 phosphorylation sites (Phi XRXXSXXX Phi) had been mutated. The enzyme did neither phosphorylate H. jecorina Cre1 nor histone H3, another substrate of Snf1 kinase in yeast. H. jecorina Snf1 also phosphorylated peptides comprising the strict Snf1 consensus, but notably did not phosphorylate peptides containing the regulatory serine residue in Cre1 (=Ser(241) in H. jecorina Cre1 and Ser(266) in Sclerotinia sclerotiorum CRE1). The use of cell-free extracts of H. jecorina as protein source for Snf1 showed phosphorylation of an unknown 36 kDa protein, which was present only in extracts from glucose-grown mycelia. We conclude that the Snf1 kinase from H. jecorina is not involved in the phosphorylation of Cre1.

Quantitative Analysis of GAL Genetic Switch of Saccharomyces cerevisiae Reveals That Nucleocytoplasmic Shuttling of Gal80p Results in a Highly Sensitive Response to Galactose

The nucleocytoplasmic shuttling of the repressor Gal80p is known to play a pivotal role in the signal transduction process of GAL genetic switch of Saccharomyces cerevisiae (Peng, G., and Hopper, J. E. (2002) Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U. S. A. 99, 8548-8553). We have developed a comprehensive model of this GAL switch to quantify the expression from the GAL promoter containing one or two Gal4p-binding sites and to understand the biological significance of the shuttling process. Our experiments show that the expression of proteins from the GAL promoter containing one and two binding sites for Gal4p is ultrasensitive (a steep response to a given input). Furthermore, the model revealed that the shuttling of Gal80p is the key step in imparting ultrasensitive response to the inducer. During induction, free Gal80p concentration is altered by sequestration, without any change in the distribution coefficient across the nuclear membrane. Furthermore, the estimated concentrations of Gal80p and Gal3p allow basal expression of alpha-galactosidase, but not beta-galactosidase, from the GAL promoter containing one and two binding sites for Gal4p, respectively. Conversely, the expression from genes with two binding sites is more sensitive to inducer concentration as compared with one binding site. We show that autoregulation of Gal80p is coincidental to the autoregulation of Gal3p, and it does not impart ultrasensitivity. We conclude from our analysis that the ultrasensitivity of the GAL genetic switch is solely because of the shuttling phenomena of the repressor Gal80p across the nuclear membrane.

Regulation of Trichoderma cellulase formation: lessons in molecular biology from an industrial fungus. A review

The present article reviews the current understanding of regulation of cellulase gene transcription in Hypocrea jecorina (= Trichoderma reesei). Special emphasis is put on the mechanism of action of low molecular weight inducers of cellulase formation, the presence and role of recently identified transactivating proteins (Ace1, Ace2, Hap2/3/5), and the role of the carbon catabolite repressor Cre1. We also report on some recent genomic approaches towards understanding how cellulase inducers signal their presence to the transcriptional apparatus.

New perspectives on the assembly process of mitochondrial respiratory chain complex cytochrome c oxidase

The assembly of cytochrome c oxidase (COX) is a complicated process and requires a number of assembly factors to put all the necessary subunits in the correct position. Defects in COX assembly lead in particular to serious neuromuscular disorders. We demonstrated that COX-deficient patients can be associated with different assembly patterns. To obtain more insight in the biogenesis of COX in a living cell, we used yeast as a model organism to design a way to pulse label holo-COX with green fluorescent protein (GFP). Using blue native electrophoresis, we showed that the GFP-tagged subunit is incorporated into fully assembled COX and this GFP tagged complex still has enzymatic activity. This allows us to correlate the GFP fluorescence signal detected in vivo by microscopy with the synthesis, turnover and assembly of COX.