Mikio Arisawa

Identification of Yeast Rho1p GTPase as a Regulatory Subunit of 1,3-β-Glucan Synthase

1,3-β-D-Glucan synthase [also known as β(1→3)glucan synthase] is a multi-enzyme complex that catalyzes the synthesis of 1,3-β-linked glucan, a major structural component of the yeast cell wall. Temperature-sensitive mutants in the essential Rho-type guanosine triphosphatase (GTPase), Rho1p, displayed thermolabile glucan synthase activity, which was restored by the addition of recombinant Rho1p. Glucan synthase from mutants expressing constitutively active Rho1p did not require exogenous guanosine triphosphate for activity. Rho1p copurified with β(1→3)glucan synthase and associated with the Fks1p subunit of this complex in vivo. Both proteins were localized predominantly at sites of cell wall remodeling. Therefore, it appears that Rho1p is a regulatory subunit of β(1→3)glucan synthase.

Overt nephrogenic diabetes insipidus in mice lacking the CLC-K1 chloride channel

CLC-K1 is a kidney-specific chloride channel that mediates transepithelial chloride transport in the thin ascending limb of Henles loop (tAL) in the inner medulla. Transport of NaCl in the tAL is thought to be a component of urinary concentration in a passive model of the countercurrent multiplication system, but there has been no direct evidence that CLC-K1 is involved in urine concentration. To analyse the physiological function of CLC-K1 in vivo, we generated mice lacking CLC-K1 by targeted gene disruption. Clcnk1–/– mice were physically normal appearance, but produced approximately five times more urine than Clcnk1+/– and Clcnk1+/+ mice. After 24 hours of water deprivation, Clcnk1–/– mice were severely dehydrated and lethargic, with a decrease of approximately 27% in body weight. Intraperitoneal injection of the V2 agonist 1-deamino-8-D-arginine vasopressin (dDAVP) induced a threefold increase in urine osmolarity in Clcnk1+/– and Clcnk1+/+ mice, whereas only a minimal increase was seen in Clcnk1–/– mice, indicating nephrogenic diabetes insipidus. After in vitro perfusion of the tAL, the lumen-to-bath chloride gradient did not produce a diffusion potential in Clcnk1–/– mice in contrast to Clcnk1+/+ and Clcnk1+/– mice. These results establish that CLC-K1 has a role in urine concentration, and that the countercurrent system in the inner medulla is involved in the generation and maintenance of hypertonic medullary interstitium.

Isolation of CaSLN1 and CaNIK1, the genes for osmosensing histidine kinase homologues, from the pathogenic fungus Candida albicans

Recent studies have revealed that fungi possess a mechanism similar to bacterial two-component systems to respond to extracellular changes in osmolarity. In Saccharomyces cerevisiae, Sln1p contains both histidine kinase and receiver (response regulator) domains and acts as an osmosensor protein that regulates the downstream HOG1 MAP kinase cascade. SLN1 of Candida albicans was functionally cloned using an S. cerevisiae strain in which SLN1 expression was conditionally suppressed. Deletion analysis of the cloned gene demonstrated that the receiver domain of C. albicans Sln1p was not necessary to rescue SLN1-deficient S. cerevisiae strains. Unlike S. cerevisiae, a null mutation of C. albicans SLN1 was viable under regular and high osmotic conditions, but it caused a slight growth retardation at high osmolarity. Southern blotting with C. albicans SLN1 revealed the presence of related genes, one of which is highly homologous to the NIK1 gene of Neurospora crassa. Thus, C. albicans harbours both SLN1- and NIK1-type histidine kinases.

Tetracycline-regulatable system to tightly control gene expression in the pathogenic fungus Candida albicans

ABSTRACT Conventional tools for elucidating gene function are relatively scarce in Candida albicans, the most prevalent human fungal pathogen. To this end, we developed a convenient system to control gene expression in C. albicans by the tetracycline-regulatable (TR) promoters. When the sea pansy Renilla reniformisluciferase gene (RLUC1) was placed under the control of this system, doxycycline (DOX) inhibited the luciferase activity almost completely. In the absence of DOX, the RLUC1 gene was induced to express luciferase at a level 400- to 1,000-fold higher than that in the presence of DOX. The same results were obtained in hypha-forming cells. The replacement ofN-myristoyltransferase or translation elongation factor 3 promoters with TR promoters conferred a DOX-dependent growth defect in culture media. Furthermore, all the mice infected with these mutants, which are still virulent, survived following DOX administration. Consistently, we observed that the number of these mutant cells recovered from the mouse kidneys was significantly reduced following DOX administration. Thus, this system is useful for investigating gene functions, since this system is able to function in both in vitro and in vivo settings.

Cloning of the Candida glabrata TRP1 and HIS3 genes, and construction of their disruptant strains by sequential integrative transformation.

The Candida glabrata (Cg) TRP1 and HIS3 genes have been isolated by complementation of the Saccharomyces cerevisiae (Sc) trp1 and his3 mutants, respectively. Cg TRP1 encodes a polypeptide of 217 amino acids (aa), whose aa sequence is 58% identical to that of Sc TRP1. Cg HIS3 encodes a polypeptide of 210 aa, whose aa sequence is 73% identical to that of the Sc HIS3. Both Cg TRP1 and HIS3 were disrupted by sequential integrative transformation where the Sc URA3 was used as a selection marker for transformation. The resulting auxotrophic strain of his3- and trp1- was used to examine the ability of the Sc genes to complement the Cg mutations; Sc HIS3 and TRP1 complemented the Cg his3- and trp1- mutations, respectively.

Inhibition of mitogen-stimulated T lymphocyte proliferation by calcitonin gene-related peptide.

The effect of calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP) on mouse lymphocyte proliferation stimulated by mitogens was studied. CGRP (10(-10)-10(-7) M) dose-dependently inhibited the proliferative response of mouse lymph node cells and spleen cells stimulated by T cell mitogens concanavalin A (Con A) and phytohemagglutinin (PHA), whereas a B cell mitogen lipopolysaccharide (LPS) did not inhibit this response. The maximal inhibition by this peptide was 50% to 80% at 10(-8) and 10(-7) M. The addition of 10(-8) and 10(-7) M CGRP to lymph node cell cultures 24 hr after stimulation with Con A or PHA also had a significant inhibitory effect on the proliferative response. Furthermore, in the same concentration range (10(-10)-10(-7) M) CGRP increased intracellular cyclic AMP concentration in nylon wool nonadherent cells, but not in nylon wool adherent cells. CGRP had no significant effect on intracellular cyclic GMP concentration. In addition, specific binding of CGRP was observed in mouse spleen cells. Our present study suggests that CGRP inhibits the proliferative response of T lymphocytes to the mitogens by interacting with cell receptors coupled with adenylate cyclase. CGRP may be implicated in the regulation of T cell function.

Screening for glycosylphosphatidylinositol (GPI)-dependent cell wall proteins in Saccharomyces cerevisiae.

Abstract Open reading frames in the genome of Saccharomyces cerevisiae were screened for potential glycosylphosphatidylinositol (GPI)-attached proteins. The identification of putative GPI-attached proteins was based on three criteria: the presence of a GPI-attachment signal sequence, a signal sequence for secretion and a serine- or threonine-rich sequence. In all, 53 ORFs met these three criteria and 38 were further analyzed as follows. The sequence encoding the 40 C-terminal amino acids of each was fused with the structural gene for a reporter protein consisting of a secretion signal, α-galactosidase and a hemagglutinin (HA) epitope, and examined for the ability to become incorporated into the cell wall. On this basis, 14 of fusion proteins were classified as GPI-dependent cell wall proteins because cells expressing these fusion proteins: (i) had high levels of α-galactosidase activity on their surface; (ii) released significant amounts of the fusion proteins from the membrane on treatment with phosphatidylinositol-specific phospholipase C (PI-PLC); and (iii) released fusion proteins from the cell wall following treatment with laminarinase. Of the 14 identified putative GPI-dependent cell wall proteins, 12 had novel ORFs adjacent to their GPI-attachment signal sequence. Amino acid sequence alignment of the C-terminal sequences of the 12 ORFs, together with those of known cell wall proteins, reveals some sequence similarities among them.

The Eukaryotic UDP-N-Acetylglucosamine Pyrophosphorylases GENE CLONING, PROTEIN EXPRESSION, AND CATALYTIC MECHANISM

A search of the yeast data base for a protein homologous to Escherichia coliUDP-N-acetylglucosamine pyrophosphorylase yieldedUAP1 (UDP-N-acetylglucosaminepyrophosphorylase), the Saccharomyces cerevisiae gene for UDP-N-acetylglucosamine pyrophosphorylase. The Candida albicans and human homologs were also cloned by screening a C. albicans genomic library and a human testis cDNA library, respectively. Sequence analysis revealed that the human UAP1 cDNA was identical to previously reported AGX1. A null mutation of the S. cerevisiae UAP1 (ScUAP1) gene was lethal, and when expressed under the control of ScUAP1 promoter, bothC. albicans and Homo sapiens UAP1(CaUAP1 and HsUAP1) rescued theScUAP1-deficient S. cerevisiae cells. All the recombinant ScUap1p, CaUap1p, and HsUap1p possessed UDP-N-acetylglucosamine pyrophosphorylase activitiesin vitro. The yeast Uap1p utilizedN-acetylglucosamine-1-phosphate as the substrate, and together with Agm1p, it produced UDP-N-acetylglucosamine from N-acetylglucosamine-6-phosphate. These results demonstrate that the UAP1 genes indeed specify eukaryotic UDP-GlcNAc pyrophosphorylase and that phosphomutase reaction precedes uridyltransfer. Sequence comparison with other UDP-sugar pyrophosphorylases revealed that amino acid residues, Gly112, Gly114, Thr115, Arg116, Pro122, and Lys123 of ScUap1p are highly conserved in UDP-sugar pyrophosphorylases reported to date. Among these amino acids, alanine substitution for Gly112, Arg116, or Lys123 severely diminished the activity, suggesting that Gly112, Arg116, or Lys123 are possible catalytic residues of the enzyme.

Systematic identification, classification, and characterization of the open reading frames which encode novel helicase‐related proteins in Saccharomyces cerevisiae by gene disruption and Northern analysis

Helicase‐related proteins play important roles in various cellular processes incuding DNA replication, DNA repair, RNA processing and so on. It has been well known that the amino acid sequences of these proteins contain several conserved motifs, and that the open reading frames (ORFs) which encode helicase‐related proteins make up several gene families. In this study, we have identified 134 ORFs that encode helicase‐like proteins in the Saccharomyces genome, based on similarity with the ORFs of authentic helicase and helicase‐related proteins. Multiple alignment of the ORF sequences resulted in the 134 ORFs being classified to 11 clusters. Seven out of 21 previously uncharacterized ORFs (YDL031w, YDL070w, YDL084w, YGL150c, YKL078w, YLR276c, and YMR128w) were identified by systematic gene disruption, to be essential for vegetative growth. Three (YDR332w, YGL064c, and YOL095c) out of the remaining 14 dispensable ORFs exhibited the slow‐growth phenotype at 30°C and 37°C. Furthermore, the expression profiles of transcripts from 43 ORFs were examined under seven different growth conditions by Northern analysis and reverse transcription‐polymerase chain reaction, indicating that all of the 43 tested ORFs were transcribed. Interestingly, we found that the level of transcript from 34 helicase‐like genes was markedly increased by heat shock. This suggests that helicase‐like genes may be involved in the biosynthesis of nucleic acids and proteins, and that the genes can be transcriptionally activated by heat shock to compensate for the repressed synthesis of mRNA and protein. Copyright

Amino Acid Sequence Requirement for Efficient Incorporation of Glycosylphosphatidylinositol-associated Proteins into the Cell Wall of Saccharomyces cerevisiae

During cell wall biogenesis inSaccharomyces cerevisiae, some glycosylphosphatidylinositol (GPI)-attached proteins are detached from GPI moieties and bound to β-1,6-glucan of the cell wall. The amino acid sequence requirement for the incorporation of GPI-attached proteins into the cell wall was studied by using reporter fusion proteins. Only the short ω-minus region composed of five amino acids, which is located upstream of the ω site for GPI attachment, determined the cellular localization of the GPI-associated proteins. Within the ω-minus region, amino acid residues at the ω-4 or -5 and ω-2 sites were important for the cell wall incorporation. Yap3p, a well characterized GPI-anchored plasma membrane aspartic protease, was localized in the cell wall when the ω-minus region was mutated to sequences containing Val or Ile at the ω-4 or -5 site and Val or Tyr at the ω-2 site.