Evidence for the degradation of nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate-dependent glutamate dehydrogenase of Candida utilis during rapid enzyme inactivation

Proton production and consumption pathways in yeast metabolism. A chemostat culture analysis

In this investigation, a method for the accurate quantitative determination of net proton production or consumption in biological cultures has been devised. Cells are cultured under constant pH conditions. The specific rate of proton production or consumption by the culture (qH+, mmol h-1 per g biomass) is proportional to the mmol of base or acid required to maintain constant pH per unit time, and this equivalence is independent of the buffering capacity of the culture medium. The above method has been applied to chemostat cultures of Candida utilis growing on glucose or glycerol as carbon source, and different nitrogen sources. The results indicate that the nitrogen assimilation pathway alone determines the value of qH+, and a fixed stoichiometric relationship between nitrogen uptake rate qN (meq h-1 per g biomass) and qH+ has been found for each nitrogen source employed. Thus, qH+/qN values of +1, 0 and -1 were found for ammonium ions, urea and nitrate respectively. Under oxidative metabolism, the contribution of carbon catabolism to the value of qH+ was undetectable. Sine qN may be related to growth and production of type 1 compounds in fermentation processes, the parameter qH+ was incorporated into a model of growth and energy metabolism in chemostat culture (Castrillo and Ugalde, Yeast 10, 185 - 197, 1994), resulting in adequate simulations of experimentally observed culture performance. Thus, it is suggested that qH+ may be employed as a simple and effective control parameter for biotechnological processes involving biomass-related products.

Degradation and turnover of peroxisomes in the yeast Hansenula polymorpha induced by selective inactivation of peroxisomal enzymes

Inactivation of peroxisomal enzymes in the yeast Hansenula polymorpha was studied following transfer of cells into cultivation media in which their activity was no longer required for growth. After transfer of methanol-grown cells into media containing glucose - a substrate that fully represses alcohol oxidase synthesis - the rapid inactivation of alcohol oxidase and catalase was paralleled by a disappearance of alcohol oxidase and catalase protein. The rate and extent of this inactivation was dependent upon conditions of cultivation of cells prior to their transfer. This carbon catabolite inactivation of alcohol oxidase was paralleled by degradation of peroxisomes which occurred by means of an autophagic process that was initiated by the formation of a number of electron-dense membranes around the organelles to be degraded. Sequestration was confined to peroxisomes; other cell-components such as ribosomes were absent in the sequestered cell compartment. Also, cytochemically, hydrolytic enzymes could not be demonstrated in these autophagosomes. The vacuole played a major role in the subsequent peroxisomal breakdown since it provided the enzymes required for proteolysis. Two basically similar mechanisms were observed with respect to the administration of vacuolar enzymes into the sequestered cell compartment. The first mechanism involved incorporation of a small vacuolar vesicle into the sequestered cell compartment. The delimiting membrane of this vacuolar vesicle subsequently disrupted, thereby exposing the contents of the sequestered cell compartment to vacuolar hydrolases which then degraded the peroxisomal proteins. The second mechanism, observed in cells which already contained one or more autophagic vacuoles, included fusion of the delimiting membranes of an autophagosome with the membrane surrounding an autophagic vacuole which led to migration of the peroxisome inside the latter organelle. Peroxisomes of methanol-grown H. polymorpha were degraded individually. In one cell 2 or 3 peroxisomes might be subject to degradation at the same time, but they were never observed together in one autophagosome. However, fusions of autophagic vacuoles in one cell were frequently observed. After inhibition of the cell's energy-metabolism by cyanide ions or during anaerobic incubations the formation of autophagosomes was prevented and degradation was not observed.

Nitrogen source regulates glutamate dehydrogenase NADP synthesis in Neurospora crassa

Neurospora crassa glutamate dehydrogenase-NADP (EC 1.3.1.3) has a higher activity when mycelium is grown on ammonium or nitrate as nitrogen source than when grown on glutamate or glutamine. Quantitative immunoelectrophoresis established that, under all conditions, enzyme activity corresponded to enzyme concentration. Isotope incorporation studies demonstrated that the nitrogen source exerts its regulation at the level of de novo enzyme synthesis.

Acidification power: indicator of metabolic activity and autolytic changes in Saccharomyces cerevisiae

Acidification power, defined as the sum of the spontaneous pH change determined after suspending yeast cells in water and the substrate-induced pH change after addition of glucose to the resulting suspension, reflects the level of cellular energy sources. Its use as an indicator of metabolic state of the cells was tested during a 120-h aerobic starvation. Its changes coincided with changes in cell viability, initial rate of endogenous oxygen consumption rate, cell ATP, extra- and intracellular buffering capacity, and the ability of cell-free extract to produce acidity by glucose fermentation. It was used as a sensitive marker of metabolic changes occurring during starvation, on treatment with glycolytic and respiratory inhibitors, and at elevated temperature.

Carboxypeptidase S- and carboxypeptidase Y-deficient mutants of Saccharomyces cerevisiae

A new carboxypeptidase (carboxypeptidase S) was found in a Saccharomyces cerevisiae strain lacking carboxypeptidase Y (D. H. Wolf and U. Weiser, Eur. J. Biochem. 73:553-556, 1977). Mutants devoid of carboxypeptidase S activity were isolated from a mutant strain that was also deficient in carboxypeptidase Y. Four mutants were analyzed in detail and fell into one complementation group. The defect segregated 2:2 in meiotic tetrads. Gene dosage experiments indicated that the mutation might reside in the structural gene of carboxypeptidase S. The absence of both enzymes, carboxypeptidases Y and S, did not affect mitotic growth. Ascopore formation was only slightly affected by the absence of both carboxypeptidases. Protein degradation under conditions of nutrient deprivation and under sporulation conditions showed no obvious alteration in the absence of carboxypeptidases Y and S. When a proteinase B mutation, which led to the absence of proteinase B activity and resulted in the partial reduction of sporulation, was introduced into a mutant lacking both carboxypeptidases, the ability of diploid cells to sporulate was nearly completely lost. Mutants lacking both carboxypeptidases were unable to grow on the dipeptide benzyloxycarbonylglycyl-l-leucine as a sole nitrogen source, which indicates an additional function for carboxypeptidases Y and S in supplying nutrients from exogenous peptides. Catabolite inactivation of fructose-1,6-bisphosphatase, cytoplasmic malate dehydrogenase, and phosphoenolpyruvate carboxykinase and inactivation of nicotin-amide adenine dinucleotide phosphate-dependent, glutamate dehydrogenase, events which have been proposed to involve proteolysis in vivo, were not dependent on the presence of carboxypeptidase Y and S. In a mutant lacking both carboxypeptidases, four new proteolytic enzymes with carboxypeptidase activity were detected.

Turnover of ammonium-inducible glutamate dehydrogenase during induction and its rapid inactivation after removal of inducer from Chlorella sorokiniana cells

When ammonia was removed from Chlorella sorokiniana cells, which contain an ammonium-inducible nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate-specific glutamate dehydrogenase (NADP-GDH), the activity of this enzyme decayed with a half-life of approximately 8 min. By use of rocket immunoelectrophoresis, indirect immunoprecipitation, and indirect immunoadsorption (coupled with pulse-chase experiments with 35S-labeled sulfate), the rapid initial loss in activity was shown to be due to enzyme inactivation rather than degradation of NADP-GDH antigen. Sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis of immunoprecipitates obtained with anti-NADP-GDH immunoglobulin G showed that enzyme inactivation is accompanied by the conversion of enzyme subunits (Mr = 59,000) to a protein with a molecular weight of 118,000. Because this protein was stable during boiling and in the presence of sodium dodecyl sulfate and high concentrations of mercaptoethanol or dithiothreitol, it was tentatively assumed to be a covalently linked dimer of enzyme subunits. Pulse-chase experiments showed that total NADP-GDH antigen was subject to rapid degradation (t 1/2 = 88 min) in induced cells, and the same degradation rate was maintained after removal of ammonia from induced cells.

Turnover of yeast fructose-bisphosphatase in different metabolic conditions

Earlier work demonstrated that addition of glucose to yeast growing on noncarbohydrate carbon sources sharply reduces the levels of fructose bisphosphatase. This report indicates that the decrease in the levels of fructose bisphosphatase is accompanied by a parallel decrease of cross-reacting material to specific antibody to fructose bisphosphatase. Use of the specific antibody shows that the loss of activity is irreversible and that its reapperance requires synthesis of protein de novo. The protein is highly stable during growth in ethanol (half life about 90 h). Addition of glucose increases the rate of degradation abut 200-fold. It is shown that the values of the rates of synthesis and degradation of fructose bisphosphatase vary with the metabolic situation of the yeast.

Regulation of Saccharomyces cerevisiae nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate-dependent glutamate dehydrogenase by proteolysis during carbon starvation

Inactivation of the nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate-dependent glutamate dehydrogenase from Saccharomyces cerevisiae during carbon starvation occurs with a simultaneous loss of enzyme protein and enzyme activity.