Effect ofEPS1gene deletion inSaccharomyces cerevisiaeon the secretion of foreign proteins which have disulfide bridges

Protein Disulfide Isomerase FgEps1 Is a Secreted Virulence Factor in Fusarium graminearum

Protein disulfide isomerase (PDI) is a member of the thioredoxin (Trx) superfamily with important functions in cellular stability, ion uptake, and cellular differentiation. While PDI has been extensively studied in humans and animals, its role in fungi remains relatively unknown. In this study, the biological functions of FgEps1, a disulfide bond isomerase in the fungal pathogen Fusarium graminearum, were investigated. It was found that FgEps1 mutation affected nutritional growth, asexual and sexual reproduction, and stress tolerance. Additionally, its deletion resulted in reduced pathogenicity and impaired DON toxin biosynthesis. The involvement of FgEps1 in host infection was also confirmed, as its expression was detected during the infection period. Further investigation using a yeast signal peptide secretion system and transient expression in Nicotiana benthamiana showed that FgEps1 suppressed the immune response of plants and promoted infection. These findings suggest that virulence factor FgEps1 plays a crucial role in growth, development, virulence, secondary metabolism, and host infection in F. graminearum.

Defining the mechanism of PDI interaction with disulfide-free amyloidogenic proteins: Implications for exogenous protein expression and neurodegenerative disease

Protein disulfide isomerase (PDI) is an important molecular chaperone capable of facilitating protein folding in addition to catalyzing the formation of a disulfide bond. To better understand the distinct substrate-screening principles of Pichia pastoris PDI (Protein disulfide isomerase) and the protective role of PDI in amyloidogenic diseases, we investigated the expression abundance and intracellular retention levels of three archetypal amyloidogenic disulfide bond-free proteins (Aβ42, α-synuclein (α-Syn) and SAA1) in P. pastoris GS115 strain without and with the overexpression of PpPDI (P. pastoris PDI). Intriguingly, amyloidogenic Aβ42 and α-Syn were detected only as intracellular proteins whereas amyloidogenic SAA1 was detected both as intracellular and extracellular proteins when these proteins were expressed in the PpPDI-overexpressing GS115 strain. The binding between PpPDI and each of the three amyloidogenic proteins was investigated by molecular docking and simulations. Three different patterns of PpPDI-substrate complexes were observed, suggesting that multiple modes of binding might exist for the binding between PpPDI and its amyloidogenic protein substrates, and this could represent different specificities and affinities of PpPDI toward its substrates. Further analysis of the proteomics data and functional annotations indicated that PpPDI could eliminate the need for misfolded proteins to be partitioned in ER-associated compartments.

The Eps1p protein disulfide isomerase conserves classic thioredoxin superfamily amino acid motifs but not their functional geometries

The widespread thioredoxin superfamily enzymes typically share the following features: a characteristic α-β fold, the presence of a Cys-X-X-Cys (or Cys-X-X-Ser) redox-active motif, and a proline in the cis configuration abutting the redox-active site in the tertiary structure. The Cys-X-X-Cys motif is at the solvent-exposed amino terminus of an α-helix, allowing the first cysteine to engage in nucleophilic attack on substrates, or substrates to attack the Cys-X-X-Cys disulfide, depending on whether the enzyme functions to reduce, isomerize, or oxidize its targets. We report here the X-ray crystal structure of an enzyme that breaks many of our assumptions regarding the sequence-structure relationship of thioredoxin superfamily proteins. The yeast Protein Disulfide Isomerase family member Eps1p has Cys-X-X-Cys motifs and proline residues at the appropriate primary structural positions in its first two predicted thioredoxin-fold domains. However, crystal structures show that the Cys-X-X-Cys of the second domain is buried and that the adjacent proline is in the trans, rather than the cis isomer. In these configurations, neither the “active-site” disulfide nor the backbone carbonyl preceding the proline is available to interact with substrate. The Eps1p structures thus expand the documented diversity of the PDI oxidoreductase family and demonstrate that conserved sequence motifs in common folds do not guarantee structural or functional conservation.

The secretory pathway: exploring yeast diversity

Protein secretion is an essential process for living organisms. In eukaryotes, this encompasses numerous steps mediated by several hundred cellular proteins. The core functions of translocation through the endoplasmic reticulum membrane, primary glycosylation, folding and quality control, and vesicle-mediated secretion are similar from yeasts to higher eukaryotes. However, recent research has revealed significant functional differences between yeasts and mammalian cells, and even among diverse yeast species. This review provides a current overview of the canonical protein secretion pathway in the model yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae, highlighting differences to mammalian cells as well as currently unresolved questions, and provides a genomic comparison of the S. cerevisiae pathway to seven other yeast species where secretion has been investigated due to their attraction as protein production platforms, or for their relevance as pathogens. The analysis of Candida albicans, Candida glabrata, Kluyveromyces lactis, Pichia pastoris, Hansenula polymorpha, Yarrowia lipolytica, and Schizosaccharomyces pombe reveals that many - but not all - secretion steps are more redundant in S. cerevisiae due to duplicated genes, while some processes are even absent in this model yeast. Recent research obviates that even where homologous genes are present, small differences in protein sequence and/or differences in the regulation of gene expression may lead to quite different protein secretion phenotypes.

Prevention of amyloid fibril formation of amyloidogenic chicken cystatin by site-specific glycosylation in yeast

To address the role of glycosylation on fibrillogenicity of amyloidogenic chicken cystatin, the consensus sequence for N-linked glycosylation (Asn106-Ile108 --> Asn106-Thr108) was introduced by site-directed mutagenesis into the wild-type and amyloidogenic chicken cystatins to construct the glycosylated form of chicken cystatins. Both the glycosylated and unglycosylated forms of wild-type and amyloidogenic mutant I66Q cystatin were expressed and secreted in a culture medium of yeast Pichia pastoris transformants. Comparison of the amount of insoluble aggregate, the secondary structure, and fibrillogenicity has shown that the N-linked glycosylation could prevent amyloid fibril formation of amyloidogenic chicken cystatin secreted in yeast cells without affecting its inhibitory activities. Further study showed this glycosylation could inhibit the formation of cystatin dimers. Therefore, our data strongly suggested that the mechanism causing the prevention of amyloidogenic cystation fibril formation may be realized through suppression of the formation of three-dimensional domain-swapped dimers and oligomers of amyloidogenic cystatin by the glycosylated chains at position 106.