SITE OF ACTION OF CYCLOHEXIMIDE IN CELLS OF SACCHAROMYCES PASTORIANUS. I. EFFECT OF THE ANTIBIOTIC ON CELLULAR METABOLISM

Cycloheximide in the nanomolar range inhibits seed germination of Orobanche minor

From the 992 samples of culture extracts of microorganisms isolated from soil in Japan, we found that the extract of Streptomyces sp. no. 226 inhibited Orobanche minor seed germination without significantly affecting the seed germination of Trifolium pratense and the growth of Aspergillus oryzae and Escherichia coli. Using ESI-MS, 1H-NMR, and 13C-NMR, we identified the active compound as cycloheximide. Cycloheximide had half-maximum inhibitory concentrations of 2.6 ng/mL for the inhibition of seed germination of O. minor and 2.5 µg/mL for that of the conidial germination of A. oryzae. Since cycloheximide is known to inhibit translation by interacting with ribosomal protein L28 (RPL28) in yeast, we investigated whether RPL protein of O. minor plays a critical role in the inhibition of O. minor seed germination. Our data suggested that O. minor RPL27A was not sensitive to cycloheximide by comparing it to the strain expressing S. cerevisiae RPL28. These findings suggest the presence of an unidentified mechanism by which cycloheximide hinders O. minor seed germination.

Cytoplasmic polyadenylate processing events accompany the transfer of mRNA from the free mRNP particles to the polysomes in Physarum

The relationship between the mRNA in the polysomes and the free cytoplasmic messenger ribonucleoprotein of Physarum polycephalum was studied by microinjection techniques. Labeled free cytoplasmic ribonucleoprotein, prepared from donor plasmodia, was microinjected into unlabeled host plasmodia, and its fat was followed in the host ribonucleoprotein particles. Approximately one-half of the poly(A)-containing RNA [poly(A)+RNA] that originated from the microinjected particles was incorporated into the host polysomes by normal translational processes within 1 hr. Very short poly(A) sequences (approximately 15 nucleotide residues) were found in these poly(A)+RNA molecules. These short poly(A) sequences were sensitive to digestion with micrococcal nuclease, suggesting that they were not associated with protein. Because the poly(A)+RNA molecules of the microinjected free cytoplasmic mRNP had originally contained poly(A) sequences 50-65 nucleotides long and were associated with protein extensive poly(A) degradation and poly(A).protein complex dissociation must have occurred during their incorporation into the polysomes or during their translation. These results demonstrate a precursor-product relationship between free cytoplasmic mRNP and polysomal mRNA and suggest that the incorporation process in Physarum is accompanied by structural modifications in the poly(A) region of mRNA. They also imply that the polysome is a site for disruption of the poly(A).protein complex and poly(A) degradation.

Protein synthesis and the recovery of both survival and cytoplasmic "petite" mutation in ultraviolet-treated yeast cells. I. Nuclear-directed protein synthesis

The contribution of nuclear-directed protein synthesis in the repair of lethal and mitochondrial genetic damage after UV-irradiation of exponential and stationary phage haploid yeast cells was examined. This was carried out using cycloheximide (CH), a specific inhibitor of nuclear protein synthesis. It appears that nuclear protein synthesis is required for the increase in survival seen after the liquid holding of cells at both stages, as well as for the "petite" recovery seen after the liquid holding of exponential phase cells. The characteristic negative liquid holding effect observed for the UV induction of "petites" in stationary phase cells (increase of the frequency of "petites" during storage) remained following all the treatments which inhibited nuclear protein synthesis. However, the application of photoreactivating light following dark holding with cycloheximide indicates that some steps of the repair of both nuclear and mitochondrial damage are performed in the absence of a synthesis of proteins.

Studies on the action of nalidixic acid in the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae

The effect of the antibiotic nalidixic acid on macromolecular metabolism in the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae has been studied. It was found that, upon the addition of nalidixic acid to a logarithmically growing culture, there is a transient inhibition of total cell ribonucleic acid, deoxyribonucleic acid, and protein synthesis, after which the cells show an almost complete recovery. In addition, there is no preferential inhibition of yeast mitochondrial deoxyribonucleic acid synthesis.

Hyphal wall synthesis in Aspergillus nidulans: effect of protein synthesis inhibition and osmotic shock on chitin insertion and morphogenesis

Pulse-labeling with N-[acetyl-(3)H] glucosamine and radioautography were used to follow the sites of chitin incorporation in hyphae of an Aspergillus nidulans mutant blocked in amino sugar synthesis. Growing hyphae incorporated N-acetylglucosamine almost exclusively at the tip. Cycloheximide addition greatly increased the label in subapical regions of the hyphae and reduced that at the tip. This effect of cycloheximide was immediate, could be reversed by removing the inhibitor, and did not appear to be due to chitin turnover. A similar change from apical to subapical N-acetylglucosamine incorporation occurred after hyphae were subjected to an osmotic shock which did not inhibit protein synthesis. The two treatments induced morphogenetic changes in the hyphae which produced abnormally large numbers of branches and septa.

Inactivation of fructose-1,6-diphosphatase by glucose in yeast

Fructose-1,6-diphosphatase was derepressed in Saccharomyces cerevisiae by incubation in media containing non-sugar carbon sources. Addition of glucose to a derepressed culture led to a rapid loss of the measurable activity of the enzyme. Fructose and mannose also produced inactivation, but 2-deoxyglucose was ineffective. Experiments with cycloheximide indicated that the inactivation does not require protein synthesis. It was also shown that the process is not energy-dependent. The reappearance of the enzyme was dependent on an energy source and was prevented by cycloheximide. These results suggest that fructose diphosphatase inactivation is irreversible and that reappearance of enzyme activity implies de novo synthesis. Screening of different genera of yeasts has shown that the inactivation of fructose diphosphatase is a relatively widespread phenomenon.

Glucocorticoid regulation of ACTH sensitivity of adenyl cyclase in rat fat cell membranes

Plasma membrane sacs of isolated rat fat cells (ghots) possess an adenyl cyclase system, which is activated by lipolytic hormones of disparate molecular structure, including adrenocorticotropin (ACTH), glucagon, and epinephrine. Previous studies indicated that distinctive selectivity units for individual hormones are coupled to the same unit of adenyl cyclase in the fat cell membrane. The present study has shown that ghost cyclase from adrenalectomized and hypophysectomized rats exhibits a striking reduction in response to ACTH, the stimulatory effects of epinephrine, glucagon, or fluoride being unchanged. Pretreatment of adrenalectomized, hypophysectomized, sham operated, or intact rats with the synthetic glucocorticoid, dexamethasone, selectively increased the ACTH response in ghost cyclase preparations. Cortisol, like dexamethasone, increased the ACTH response in ghosts from adrenalectomized rats; 11-deoxycorticosterone was ineffective. The dexamethasone effect to enhance the ACTH response is blocked by actinomycin D or cycloheximide. The present results show that stimulation of rat fat cell adenyl cyclase by ACTH involves a distinctive molecular entity, which can be clearly differentiated from adenyl cyclase in the membrane as well as from the selectivity sites for epinephrine and glucagon. The data indicate that the biosynthesis of the component required for ACTH stimulation of ghost cyclase-either an ACTH selectivity unit or specific coupling factor-is induced by glucocorticoids at the level of gene regulation.

Limited DNA synthesis in the absence of protein synthesis in Physarum polycephalum

Actidione (cycloheximide), an antibiotic inhibitor of protein synthesis, blocked the incorporation of leucine and lysine during the S phase of Physarum polycephalum. Actidione added during the early prophase period in which mitosis is blocked totally inhibited the initiation of DNA synthesis. Actidione treatment in late prophase, which permitted mitosis in the absence of protein synthesis, permitted initiation of a round of DNA replication making up between 20 and 30% of the unreplicated nuclear DNA. Actidione treatment during the S phase permitted a round of replication similar to the effect at the beginning of S. The DNA synthesized in the presence of actidione was replicated semiconservatively and was stable through at least the mitosis following antibiotic removal. Experiments in which fluorodeoxyuridine inhibition was followed by thymidine reversal in the presence of actidione suggest that the early rounds of DNA replication must be completed before later rounds are initiated.

Alterations in protein and nucleic acid metabolism of lymphoma 6C3HED-og cells in mice given guinea pig serum

Lymphoma 6C3HED-OG cells, known from previous work to be susceptible to the effects of guinea pig serum in vivo and dependent upon extrinsic asparagine for protein synthesis and growth in vitro, remained for the most part morphologically intact and countable in the electronic cell counter following exposures of 1 and 2 hr to the effects of heated (56 degrees C, 30 min) guinea pig serum injected into the peritoneal cavities of mice in which the lymphoma cells were growing rapidly; after exposures of 4 and 6 hr the bulk of the -OG cells remained still intact and countable in the cell counter, though by this time a small proportion of them (5 to 12%) proved stainable with eosin in wet preparations) hence were presumably nonviable. After 12, 16, and 24 hr of exposure, however, the bulk of the -OG cells were either lysed or fragmented, to the extent that they did not register in the cell counter. Morphologic studies of the cells exposed 16 and 24 hr to the effects of heated guinea pig serum in vivo, disclosed that most of the cells then remaining were either frankly necrotic or greatly altered otherwise, marked vacuolation of the cytoplasm being the most conspicuous alteration in cells not yet obviously necrotic. Long before the bulk of the Lymphoma 6C3HED-OG cells had become conspicuously changed morphologically following exposure to the effects of heated guinea pig serum in vivo, they manifested striking alterations in protein metabolism, as was disclosed by "pulse" studies with radioactive valine. For example, the protein metabolism of -OG cells, as measured by their incorporation of L-valine-C(14), was sharply curtailed following 15 min of exposure to heated guinea pig serum in vivo, as compared with valine incorporation by cells labeled immediately after exposure to the guinea pig serum. Following exposure to heated guinea pig serum during 60 min, -OG cells incorporated less than half as much L-valine-C(14) as did cells labeled immediately after exposure, and the incorporation of L-valine-C(14) was still less after 120 min of exposure. By contrast, Lymphoma -RG1 cells, known from previous work to be wholly insusceptible to the effects of guinea pig serum in vivo and independent of need for extrinsic asparagine for protein synthesis and growth in vitro, showed no curtailment whatever of protein synthesis following exposures to the effects of heated guinea pig serum in vivo during periods of 15, 60, and 120 min. Reasons are given for considering the prompt inhibition of protein synthesis in the asparagine-dependent -OG cells a direct result of asparagine-deprivation induced in vivo by the injected guinea pig serum, the L-asparaginase of which presumably converted the available L-asparagine of the host to L-aspartic acid that was not taken up by the -OG cells. The synthesis of deoxyribonucleic acid by Lymphoma 6C3HED-OG cells, as measured by the incorporation of thymidme-H(3), determined with the aid of liquid scintillation counting and autoradiography, was also altered by exposure of the lymphoma cells to the effects of heated guinea pig serum in vivo, though not during exposures of 15 and 60 min; only after an exposure of 120 min did the population of -OG cells incorporate notably less thymidine-H(3) than did control populations, though after 240 min of exposure the -OG cells incorporated less than one-fifth as much tritiated thymidineas had -OG cells exposed to heated guinea pig serum for 60 min or to heated horse serum for periods up to 240 min. Autoradiographs indicated that DNA synthesis by -OG cells normally proceeds at an intense level that leads to some 60% of these cells being heavily labeled in autoradiographs at any given time; after exposure to the effects of heated guinea pig serum during 2 and 4 hr in vivo, however, the lymphoma cells lost their ability to incorporate enough tritiated thymidine to become heavily labeled, but approximately the same proportion of them (56 to 58%) retained their ability to incorporate sufficient tritiated thymidine to become lightly labeled. The possibility is considered that the inhibition of DNA synthesis in the asparagine-dependent -OG cells exposed to the effects of heated guinea pig serum in vivo may be secondary to the previously manifest inhibition of protein synthesis. Further, in tests of ribonucleic acid metabolism of Lymphoma 6C3HED-OG cells after exposure to the effects of heated guinea pig serum in vivo during periods of 15, 60, 120, and 240 min, the findings indicated that the ability of the lymphoma cells to synthesize RNA, as measured by their capacity to incorporate uridine-5-H(3), remained unaltered during the exposures of 15, 60, and 120 min, but was substantially reduced following 240 min of exposure. The findings are considered in relation to the probability, disclosed in part by previous studies, that heated guinea pig serum brings about its effects upon Lymphoma 6C3HED-OG cells in vivo by providing active L-asparaginase in large amounts, which presumably converts the available (extracellular) asparagine of the host to aspartic acid, the latter not being taken up by the lymphoma cells in vivo or in vitro. Hence it seems likely that heated guinea pig serum in this way brings about a state of asparagine deprivation that is responsible for the sequential metabolic and morphologic alterations that become manifest in asparagine-dependent Lymphoma 6C3HED-OG cells following their exposure to the effects of guinea pig serum in vivo, as here described.

Studies on microbial RNA, 3. Formation of submethylated sRNA in Saccharomyces cerevisiae

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