Structure and function of the GTP binding protein Gtr1 and its role in phosphate transport in Saccharomyces cerevisiae

The Pho84 high-affinity phosphate permease is the primary phosphate transporter in the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae under phosphate-limiting conditions. The soluble G protein, Gtr1, has previously been suggested to be involved in the derepressible Pho84 phosphate uptake function. This idea was based on a displayed deletion phenotype of Deltagtr1 similar to the Deltapho84 phenotype. As of yet, the mode of interaction has not been described. The consequences of a deletion of gtr1 on in vivo Pho84 expression, trafficking and activity, and extracellular phosphatase activity were analyzed in strains synthesizing either Pho84-green fluorescent protein or Pho84-myc chimeras. The studies revealed a delayed response in Pho84-mediated phosphate uptake and extracellular phosphatase activity under phosphate-limiting conditions. EPR spectroscopic studies verified that the N-terminal G binding domain (residues 1-185) harbors the nucleotide responsive elements. In contrast, the spectra obtained for the C-terminal part (residues 186-310) displayed no evidence of conformational changes upon GTP addition.     

Phosphorylation Regulates the Ubiquitin-independent Degradation of Yeast Pah1 Phosphatidate Phosphatase by the 20S Proteasome

Saccharomyces cerevisiae Pah1 phosphatidate phosphatase, which catalyzes the conversion of phosphatidate to diacylglycerol for triacylglycerol synthesis and simultaneously controls phosphatidate levels for phospholipid synthesis, is subject to the proteasome-mediated degradation in the stationary phase of growth. In this study, we examined the mechanism for its degradation using purified Pah1 and isolated proteasomes. Pah1 expressed in S. cerevisiae or Escherichia coli was not degraded by the 26S proteasome, but by its catalytic 20S core particle, indicating that its degradation is ubiquitin-independent. The degradation of Pah1 by the 20S proteasome was dependent on time and proteasome concentration at the pH optimum of 7.0. The 20S proteasomal degradation was conserved for human lipin 1 phosphatidate phosphatase. The degradation analysis using Pah1 truncations and its fusion with GFP indicated that proteolysis initiates at the N- and C-terminal unfolded regions. The folded region of Pah1, in particular the haloacid dehalogenase-like domain containing the DIDGT catalytic sequence, was resistant to the proteasomal degradation. The structural change of Pah1, as reflected by electrophoretic mobility shift, occurs through its phosphorylation by Pho85-Pho80, and the phosphorylation sites are located within its N- and C-terminal unfolded regions. Phosphorylation of Pah1 by Pho85-Pho80 inhibited its degradation, extending its half-life by ∼2-fold. The dephosphorylation of endogenously phosphorylated Pah1 by the Nem1-Spo7 protein phosphatase, which is highly specific for the sites phosphorylated by Pho85-Pho80, stimulated the 20S proteasomal degradation and reduced its half-life by 2.6-fold. These results indicate that the proteolysis of Pah1 by the 20S proteasome is controlled by its phosphorylation state.     

Regulation of cation-coupled high-affinity phosphate uptake in the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae

Studies of the high-affinity phosphate transporters in the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae using mutant strains lacking either the Pho84 or the Pho89 permease revealed that the transporters are differentially regulated. Although both genes are induced by phosphate starvation, activation of the Pho89 transporter precedes that of the Pho84 transporter early in the growth phase in a way which may possibly reflect a fine tuning of the phosphate uptake process relative to the availability of external phosphate.     

Inorganic phosphate is sensed by specific phosphate carriers and acts in concert with glucose as a nutrient signal for activation of the protein kinase A pathway in the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae

Yeast cells starved for inorganic phosphate on a glucose-containing medium arrest growth and enter the resting phase G0. We show that re-addition of phosphate rapidly affects well known protein kinase A targets: trehalase activation, trehalose mobilization, loss of heat resistance, repression of STRE-controlled genes and induction of ribosomal protein genes. Phosphate-induced activation of trehalase is independent of protein synthesis and of an increase in ATP. It is dependent on the presence of glucose, which can be detected independently by the G-protein coupled receptor Gpr1 and by the glucose-phosphorylation dependent system. Addition of phosphate does not trigger a cAMP signal. Despite this, lowering of protein kinase A activity by mutations in the TPK genes strongly reduces trehalase activation. Inactivation of phosphate transport by deletion of PHO84 abolishes phosphate signalling at standard concentrations, arguing against the existence of a transport-independent receptor. The non-metabolizable phosphate analogue arsenate also triggered signalling. Constitutive expression of the Pho84, Pho87, Pho89, Pho90 and Pho91 phosphate carriers indicated pronounced differences in their transport and signalling capacities in phosphate-starved cells. Pho90 and Pho91 sustained highest phosphate transport but did not sustain trehalase activation. Pho84 sustained both transport and rapid signalling, whereas Pho87 was poor in transport but positive for signalling. Pho89 displayed very low phosphate transport and was negative for signalling. Although the results confirmed that rapid signalling is independent of growth recovery, long-term mobilization of trehalose was much better correlated with growth recovery than with trehalase activation. These results demonstrate that phosphate acts as a nutrient signal for activation of the protein kinase A pathway in yeast in a glucose-dependent way and they indicate that the Pho84 and Pho87 carriers act as specific phosphate sensors for rapid phosphate signalling.     

Zinc status and vacuolar zinc transporters control alkaline phosphatase accumulation and activity in Saccharomyces cerevisiae

Little is known about how metalloproteins in the secretory pathway obtain their metal ion cofactors. We used the Pho8 alkaline phosphatase of the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae to probe this process in vivo . We found that both Pho8 activity and protein accumulation are zinc-dependent and decrease in zinc-limited cells. Low Pho8 accumulation was the result of degradation by vacuolar proteases. Surprisingly, the protective effect of zinc on Pho8 stability was not solely due to Zn²⁺ binding to the active-site ligands suggesting that the Pho8 protein is targeted for degradation in zinc-limited cells by another mechanism. Pho8 appears to be a rare example of a metalloprotein whose stability is regulated by its metal cofactor independently of active-site binding. We also assessed which zinc transporters are responsible for supplying zinc to Pho8. We found that the Zrc1 and Cot1 vacuolar zinc transporters play the major role while the Msc2/Zrg17 zinc transporter complex active in the endoplasmic reticulum is not involved. These results demonstrate that the vacuolar zinc transporters, previously implicated in metal detoxification, also deliver zinc to certain metalloproteins within intracellular compartments. These data suggest that Pho8 receives its metal cofactor in the vacuole rather than in earlier compartments of the secretory pathway.     

Mutational analysis of putative phosphate- and proton-binding sites in the Saccharomyces cerevisiae Pho84 phosphate:H(+) transceptor and its effect on signalling to the PKA and PHO pathways

In Saccharomyces cerevisiae, the Pho84 phosphate transporter acts as the main provider of phosphate to the cell using a proton symport mechanism, but also mediates rapid activation of the PKA (protein kinase A) pathway. These two features led to recognition of Pho84 as a transceptor. Although the physiological role of Pho84 has been studied in depth, the mechanisms underlying the transport and sensor functions are unclear. To obtain more insight into the structure-function relationships of Pho84, we have rationally designed and analysed site-directed mutants. Using a three-dimensional model of Pho84 created on the basis of the GlpT permease, complemented with multiple sequence alignments, we selected Arg(168) and Lys(492), and Asp(178), Asp(358) and Glu(473) as residues potentially involved in phosphate or proton binding respectively, during transport. We found that Asp(358) (helix 7) and Lys(492) (helix 11) are critical for the transport function, and might be part of the putative substrate-binding pocket of Pho84. Moreover, we show that alleles mutated in the putative proton-binding site Asp(358) are still capable of strongly activating PKA pathway targets, despite their severely reduced transport activity. This indicates that signalling does not require transport and suggests that mutagenesis of amino acid residues involved in binding of the co-transported ion may constitute a promising general approach to separate the transport and signalling functions in transceptors.     

Molecular characterization of a novel yeast cell-wall acid phosphatase cloned from Kluyveromyces marxianus

A novel Kluyveromyces marxianus gene that encodes an acid phosphatase, Pho610, was cloned in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. The deduced amino acid sequence was distinct from S. cerevisiae phosphatases but similar to some fungal enzymes. A peculiar feature of the sequence is that it has hydrophobic stretches both at the N- and C-termini, which is a characteristic of the precursors of glycosylphosphatidylinositol(GPI)-anchored proteins. When the gene was expressed in S. cerevisiae, the active enzyme was recovered in the periplasmic fraction by glucanase digestion. The Pho610 polypeptide was highly glycosylated and a significant portion was covalently linked to the cell-wall glucan. The enzyme was secreted when the C-terminal region was truncated to remove the GPI signal. Therefore, Pho610 is a novel cell-wall protein having an enzyme activity.     

Physiological Regulation of the Derepressible Phosphate Transporter in Saccharomyces cerevisiae

The extracellular phosphate concentration permissive for the expression of different amounts of the active high-affinity Pho84 phosphate transporter in the plasma membrane as well as the PHO84 messenger RNA levels in low-phosphate-grown Saccharomyces cerevisiae cells is very narrow and essential for a tight regulation of the transporter. The Pho84 transporter undergoes a rapid degradation once the supply of phosphate and/or carbon source is exhausted.     

Studies of cytochrome c oxidase-driven H(+)-coupled phosphate transport catalyzed by the Saccharomyces cerevisiae Pho84 permease in coreconstituted vesicles

The proton-coupled Pho84 phosphate permease of Saccharomyces cerevisiae, overexpressed as a histidine-tagged chimera in Escherichia coli, was detergent-solubilized, purified, and reconstituted into proteoliposomes. Proteoliposomes containing the Pho84 protein were fused with proteoliposomes containing purified cytochrome c oxidase from beef heart mitochondria. Both components of the coreconstituted system were functionally incorporated in tightly sealed membrane vesicles in which the cytochrome c oxidase-generated electrochemical proton gradient could drive phosphate transport via the proton-coupled Pho84 permease. The metal dependency of transport indicates that a metal-phosphate complex is the translocated substrate.     

The role of dibasic residues in prohormone sorting to the regulated secretory pathway. A study with proneurotensin

The mechanisms by which prohormone precursors are sorted to the regulated secretory pathway in neuroendocrine cells remain poorly understood. Here, we investigated the presence of sorting signal(s) in proneurotensin/neuromedin N. The precursor sequence starts with a long N-terminal domain followed by a Lys-Arg-(neuromedin N)-Lys-Arg-(neurotensin)-Lys-Arg- sequence and a short C-terminal tail. An additional Arg-Arg dibasic is contained within the neurotensin sequence. Mutated precursors were expressed in endocrine insulinoma cells and analyzed for their regulated secretion. Deletion mutants revealed that the N-terminal domain and the Lys-Arg-(C-terminal tail) sequence were not critical for precursor sorting to secretory granules. In contrast, the Lys-Arg-(neuromedin N)-Lys-Arg-(neurotensin) sequence contained essential sorting information. Point mutation of all three dibasic sites within this sequence abolished regulated secretion. However, keeping intact any one of the three dibasic sequences was sufficient to maintain regulated secretion. Finally, fusing the dibasic-containing C-terminal domain of the precursor to the C terminus of beta-lactamase, a bacterial enzyme that is constitutively secreted when expressed in neuroendocrine cells, resulted in efficient sorting of the fusion protein to secretory granules in insulinoma cells. We conclude that dibasic motifs within the neuropeptide domain of proneurotensin/neuromedin N constitute a necessary and sufficient signal for sorting proteins to the regulated secretory pathway.     

Discrete proteolytic cleavage of high mobility group proteins.

Chromatographic fractionation on CM-Sephadex of a 0.35 M NaCl extract from calf thymus chromatin reveals the presence of a High Mobility Group (HMG) protein which comigrates electrophoretically with HMG-17. Further amino acid analysis and partial sequence determination suggest that this protein is a proteolytic degradation product of either HMG-1 or HMG-2 from which the acidic C-terminal region has been removed.     

Pho85 phosphorylates the Glc7 protein phosphatase regulator Glc8 in vivo

The budding yeast Glc7 serine/threonine protein phosphatase-1 is regulated by Glc8, the yeast ortholog of mammalian phosphatase inhibitor-2. In this work, we demonstrated that similarly to inhibitor-2, Glc8 function is regulated by phosphorylation. The cyclin-dependent protein kinase, Pho85, in conjunction with the related cyclins Pcl6 and Pcl7 comprise the major Glc8 kinase in vivo and in vitro. Several glc7 mutations are dependent on the presence of Glc8 for viability. For example, glc7 alleles R121K, R142H, and R198D are lethal in combination with a glc8 deletion. We found that glc7-R121K is lethal in combination with a pho85 deletion. This finding indicates that Pho85 is the sole Glc8 kinase in vivo. Furthermore, glc7-R121K is also lethal when combined with deletions of pcl6, plc7, pcl8, and pcl10, indicating that these related cyclins redundantly activate Pho85 for Glc8 phosphorylation in vivo. In vitro kinase assays and genetic results indicate that Pho85 cyclins Pcl6 and Pcl7 comprise the predominant Glc8 kinase.