Yeast Srp1, a nuclear protein related toDrosophila and mouse pendulin, is required for normal migration, division, and integrity of nuclei during mitosis

This paper describes genes from yeast and mouse with significant sequence similarities to aDrosophila gene that encodes the blood cell tumor suppressor pendulin. The protein encoded by the yeast gene, Srp1p, and mouse pendulin share 42% and 51% amino acid identity withDrosophila pendulin, respectively. All three proteins consist of 10.5 degenerate tandem repeats of 42 amino acids each. Similar repeats occur in a superfamily of proteins that includes theDrosophila Armadillo protein. All three proteins contain a consensus sequence for a bipartite nuclear localization signal (NLS) in the N-terminal domain, which is not part of the repeat structure. Confocal microscopic analysis of yeast cells stained with antibodies against Srp1p reveals that this protein is intranuclear throughout the cell cycle. Targeted gene disruption shows thatSRP1 is an essential gene. Despite their sequence similarities,Drosophila and mouse pendulin are unable to rescue the lethality of anSRP1 disruption. We demonstrate that yeast cells depleted of Srp1p arrest in mitosis with a G2 content of DNA. Arrested cells display abnormal structures and orientations of the mitotic spindles, aberrant segregation of the chromatin and the nuclei, and threads of chromatin emanating from the bulk of nuclear DNA. This phenotype suggests that Srplp is required for the normal function of microtubules and the spindle pole bodies, as well as for nuclear integrity. We suggest that Srp1p interacts with multiple components of the cell nucleus that are required for mitosis and discuss its functional similarities to, and differences fromDrosophila pendulin.     

Redefining the role of psr in beta-lactam resistance and cell autolysis of Enterococcus hirae

The contribution of penicillin-binding protein 5 (PBP5) and the PBP5 synthesis repressor (Psr) to the beta-lactam resistance, growth, and cell autolysis of wild-type strain ATCC 9790 and resistant strain R40 of Enterococcus hirae was investigated by disruption or substitution of the corresponding pbp5 and psr genes by Campbell-type recombination. The resulting modifications were confirmed by hybridization and PCR. The low susceptibility of E. hirae to beta-lactams was confirmed to be largely dependent on the presence of PBP5. However, against all expectations, inactivation of psr in ATCC 9790 or complementation of R40 cells with psr did not modify the susceptibility to benzylpenicillin or the growth and cell autolysis rates. These results indicated that the psr gene does not seem to be involved in the regulation of PBP5 synthesis and consequently in beta-lactam resistance or in the regulation of cell autolysis in E. hirae.