Research, Research Articles

Overexpression of the transcription factor Yap1 modifies intracellular redox conditions and enhances recombinant protein secretion

Marizela Delic1,2, Alexandra B. Graf2,3, Gunda Koellensperger1,4, Christina Haberhauer-Troyer1,4, Stephan Hann1,4, Diethard Mattanovich1,2, Brigitte Gasser1,2

This article investigates the role of Yap1 during the production of recombinant secretory proteins in glucose based growth conditions in Pichia pastoris, and reports a novel role of Yap1 during ER-resident oxidative protein folding.

Functional analysis of lipid metabolism genes in wine yeasts during alcoholic fermentation at low temperature

María López-Malo1,2, Estéfani García-Ríos1, Rosana Chiva1 and José Manuel Guillamon1

This study confirms the importance of specific genes in growth and fermentation activity of Saccharomyces cerevisiae at low temperature.

Angiotensin II type 1 receptor blockers increase tolerance of cells to copper and cisplatin

Pieter Spincemaille1,+, Gursimran Chandhok2,+, Andree Zibert2, Hartmut Schmidt2, Jef Verbeek3, Patrick Chaltin4,5, Bruno P.A. Cammue1,6,#, David Cassiman3, Karin Thevissen1,#

This study reports the identification of the drug class of Angiotensin II Type 1 receptor blockers (ARBs) and shows that specific ARBs increase yeast tolerance to Cu and Cp, and affect markers of Cu-induced apoptosis. Likewise, this study finds that specific ARBs increase human cell line tolerance to Cu and decrease the prevalence of apoptotic markers.

An extensive endoplasmic reticulum-localised glycoprotein family in trypanosomatids

Harriet Allison1, Amanda J. O’Reilly1, Jeremy Sternberg2 and Mark C. Field1

This work describes a novel family of type I membrane proteins ("invariant glycoproteins") and proposes them as trypanosomatid-specific ER-localised glycoproteins, with potential contributions to life cycle progression and immunity, that utilise oligomerisation as an ER retention mechanism.

Time resolved DNA occupancy dynamics during the respiratory oscillation uncover a global reset point in the yeast growth program

Cornelia Amariei, Rainer Machné, Viktor Stolc, Tomoyoshi Soga, Masaru Tomita and Douglas B. Murray

Using multiple approaches, this work implies a nucleosome focusing event as a key step that resets transcription during the respiratory oscillation.

Cell wall dynamics modulate acetic acid-induced apoptotic cell death of Saccharomyces cerevisiae

António Rego#, Ana Marta Duarte#, Flávio Azevedo#, Maria João Sousa, Manuela Côrte-Real and Susana R. Chaves

This work characterizes the involvement of MAPK signaling pathways in cell death induced by acetic acid in Saccharomyces cerevisiae.

Extracellular calcium triggers unique transcriptional programs and modulates staurosporine-induced cell death in Neurospora crassa

A. Pedro Gonçalves1,2, João Monteiro2, Chiara Lucchi2, David J. Kowbel3, J. Miguel Cordeiro1,4, Paulo Correia-de-Sá1,4, Daniel J. Rigden5, N. Louise Glass3, Arnaldo Videira1,2

The results presented here reveal that in Neurospora crassa, extracellular Ca2+ modulates cell death and the transcriptional alterations induced by staurosporine, and lead to the identification of two novel putative Ca2+-binding proteins, encoded by the NCU08524 and NCU06607 genes.

Multiple metabolic requirements for size homeostasis and initiation of division in Saccharomyces cerevisiae

Shivatheja Soma, Kailu Yang, Maria I. Morales and Michael Polymenis

This article reveals an unexpected diversity in the G1 cell cycle phenotypes of metabolic and biosynthetic Saccharomyces cerevisiae mutants, suggesting that growth requirements for cell division are multiple, distinct and imposed throughout the G1 phase of the cell cycle.

Exogenous addition of histidine reduces copper availability in the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae

Daisuke Watanabe, Rie Kikushima, Miho Aitoku, Akira Nishimura, Iwao Ohtsu, Ryo Nasuno, and Hiroshi Takagi

The herein presented results indicate that in Saccharomyces cerevisiae, histidine cytotoxicity is associated with low copper availability inside cells, not with impaired copper uptake. Furthermore, it suggests that histidine cytotoxicity is involved in deficiency of mitochondrial copper.

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Spontaneous mutations in CYC8 and MIG1 suppress the short chronological lifespan of budding yeast lacking SNF1/AMPK

February 19, 2018

Chronologically aging yeast cells are prone to adaptive regrowth, whereby mutants with a survival advantage spontaneously appear and re-enter the cell cycle in stationary phase cultures. Here, Magani et al. identified specific downstream SNF1 targets responsible for CLS extension during CR.

Decreasing cytosolic translation is beneficial to yeast and human Tafazzin-deficient cells

February 18, 2018

Cardiolipin (CL) optimizes diverse mitochondrial processes, including oxidative phosphorylation (OXPHOS). Here, de Taffin de Tilques et al. describe that a diminished capacity of CL remodeling deficient cells to preserve protein homeostasis is likely an important factor contributing to the pathogenesis of Barth Syndrome (BTHS) and identifies cytosolic translation as a potential therapeutic target for the treatment of this disease.

Production of poly-β-1,6-N-acetylglucosamine by MatAB is required for hyphal aggregation and hydrophilic surface adhesion by Streptomyces

February 12, 2018

In this article van Dissel et al. describe new insights to allow better control of liquid-culture morphology of streptomycetes, which may be harnessed to improve growth and industrial exploitation of these highly versatile natural product and enzyme producers.

Non-canonical regulation of glutathione and trehalose biosynthesis characterizes non-Saccharomyces wine yeasts with poor performance in active dry yeast production

January 26, 2018

Several yeast species, belonging to Saccharomyces and non-Saccharomyces genera, play fundamental roles during spontaneous must grape fermentation, and recent studies have shown that mixed fermentations, co-inoculated with S. cerevisiae and non-Saccharomyces strains, can improve wine organoleptic properties. Here, Gamero-Sandemetrio et al. present findings that non-canonical regulation of glutathione and trehalose biosynthesis could cause poor fermentative performance after active dry yeast (ADY) production, as it corroborates the corrective effect of antioxidant treatments, during biomass propagation, with both pure chemicals and food-grade argan oil.

Molecular signature of the imprintosome complex at the mating-type locus in fission yeast

January 16, 2018

Genetic and molecular studies have indicated that an epigenetic imprint at mat1, the sexual locus of fission yeast, initiates mating type switching. Here, Raimondi et al. characterized the recruitment of early players of mating type switching at the mat1 region and suggest a nucleoprotein protective structure defined as imprintosome.

Leishmania guyanensis parasites block the activation of the inflammasome by inhibiting maturation of IL-1β

January 14, 2018

The various symptomatic outcomes of cutaneous leishmaniasis relates to the type and potency of its underlying inflammatory responses mediated by Toll-Like-Receptor-3 (TLR3). Here, Hartely et al. investigated other innate pattern recognition receptors capable of reacting to dsRNA and potentially contributing to LRV1-mediated inflammatory pathology. They postulate that avoidance of the inflammasome pathways is likely an important mechanism of virulence in Leishmania infection irrespective of the LRV1-status.

A novel system to monitor mitochondrial translation in yeast

January 13, 2018

In this study Suhm et al. present a novel system to monitor mitochondrial translation by detection of mitochondrial GFP-translation through fluorescence microscopy and flow cytometry in functional mitochondria. This novel tool allows the investigation of the function and regulation of mitochondrial translation during stress signaling, aging and mitochondrial biogenesis.

Fat storage-inducing transmembrane (FIT or FITM) proteins are related to lipid phosphatase/phosphotransferase enzymes

December 28, 2017

Fat storage-inducing transmembrane (FIT or FITM) proteins have been implicated in the partitioning of triacylglycerol to lipid droplets and the budding of lipid droplets from the ER. Saccharomyces cerevisiae has two FITM homologues and the presented results suggest that Scs3p and Yft2p as well as FITMs in general are lipid phosphatase/phosphotransferase (LPT) enzymes involved in an as yet unknown critical step in phospholipid metabolism.

A versatile plasmid system for reconstitution and analysis of mammalian ubiquitination cascades in yeast

December 5, 2017

In this article Avagliano Trezza et al. describe a versatile vector system that allows the reconstitution of specific ubiquitination cascades in the model eukaryote Saccharomyces cerevisae (baker’s yeast) that provides a versatile tool to study complex post-translational modifications in a cellular setting.

Alcohols enhance the rate of acetic acid diffusion in S. cerevisiae : biophysical mechanisms and implications for acetic acid tolerance

December 1, 2017

Microbial cell factories with the ability to maintain high productivity in the presence of weak organic acids, such as acetic acid, are required in many industrial processes. This study demonstrates that the rate of acetic acid diffusion can be strongly affected by compounds that partition into the cell membrane, and highlights the need for considering interaction effects between compounds in the design of microbial processes.

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