Research – Page 9 – Microbial Cell

Research Articles

Aminoglycoside resistance profile and structural architecture of the aminoglycoside acetyltransferase AAC(6’)-Im

Clyde A. Smith¹, Monolekha Bhattacharya², Marta Toth², Nichole K. Stewart² and Sergei B. Vakulenko²

AAC(6')-Im, a monofunctional acetyltransferase, imparts increased resistance to certain aminoglycosides compared to its bifunctional homolog AAC(6')-Ie, with structural studies revealing differences in substrate binding that explain the discrepancies in their enzymatic activity and resistance profiles.

Cross-species complementation of bacterial- and eukaryotic-type cardiolipin synthases

Petra Gottier¹, Mauro Serricchio¹, Rita Vitale², Angela Corcelli², and Peter Bütikofer¹

This article shows that cardiolipin is crucial for cellular respiration and membrane integrity, with cardiolipin synthase enzymes like TbCLS in Trypanosoma brucei being potential drug targets due to their essential role in survival. The study demonstrates TbCLS's ability to restore cardiolipin production in yeast, highlighting the specificity and potential co-localization required for cardiolipin synthesis and remodeling, and underscoring the differences between eukaryotic and prokaryotic cardiolipin synthase mechanisms.

Identification of SUMO conjugation sites in the budding yeast proteome

Miguel Esteras¹, I-Chun Liu¹, Ambrosius P. Snijders², Adam Jarmuz¹ and Luis Aragon¹

The authors present a proteomic study that mapped SUMO acceptor lysines in budding yeast, identifying 257 potential conjugation sites, including both known and novel substrates, and providing a significant resource for future research into the functional implications of SUMOylation in yeast.

Ydj1 governs fungal morphogenesis and stress response, and facilitates mitochondrial protein import via Mas1 and Mas2

Jinglin L. Xie^2,#, Iryna Bohovych^3,#, Erin O.Y. Wong², Jean-Philippe Lambert⁴, Anne-Claude Gingras^2,4, Oleh Khalimonchuk^3,5,6, Leah E. Cowen² and Michelle D. Leach^1,2

The authors descibe the role of the Hsp40 chaperone Ydj1 in Candida albicans, noting its localization to the cytosol and mitochondrial membrane, its necessity for stress responses and filamentation, and its involvement in a protein interaction network related to co-chaperones, filamentation regulators, and mitochondrial processing peptidases, with a particular focus on the impact of Ydj1 on mitochondrial morphology, function, and the import of precursor proteins.

Farnesol inhibits translation to limit growth and filamentation in C. albicans and S. cerevisiae

Nkechi E. Egbe^1,2, Tawni O. Dornelles¹, Caroline M. Paget¹, Lydia M. Castelli^1,3 and Mark P. Ashe¹

Farnesol, a quorum-sensing molecule, inhibits the switch from yeast to filamentous growth in Candida albicans by impeding translation initiation, differing from fusel alcohols that affect the initiation factor eIF2B, as it disrupts mRNA interaction with the ribosome and prevents preinitiation complex formation.

Cristae architecture is determined by an interplay of the MICOS complex and the F₁F_O ATP synthase via Mic27 and Mic10

Katharina Eydt^1,2, Karen M. Davies³, Christina Behrendt⁴, Ilka Wittig^1,5 and Andreas S. Reichert^1,2,4,*

This article investigates the roles of MICOS subunits Mic27 and Mic10, revealing their antagonistic and cooperative interactions in crista junction formation and cristae membrane curvature, and proposes a model where F1FO-ATP synthase is connected to MICOS, influencing CJ formation.

Integrative modules for efficient genome engineering in yeast

Triana Amen¹ and Daniel Kaganovich¹

The study introduces a set of vectors with integrative modules designed for effective genome integration into standard marker loci of Saccharomyces cerevisiae, enabling precise expression levels using various promoters and demonstrating the capability of stable multi-gene integration, which is useful for tasks like multi-color cellular imaging and metabolic engineering.

Thiol trapping and metabolic redistribution of sulfur metabolites enable cells to overcome cysteine overload

Anup Arunrao Deshpande^1,#, Muskan Bhatia^1,#, Sunil Laxman², Anand Kumar Bachhawat¹

In this study, researchers investigate the mechanisms for handling cysteine overload using Saccharomyces cerevisiae, finding that overexpressing the high affinity cysteine transporter, YCT1, enables yeast cells to rapidly accumulate high levels of intracellular cysteine. The study demonstrates that cells can manage potentially toxic levels of cysteine by converting it to non-reactive thiol forms and utilizing the metabolic products for cell growth.

Identification of Ftr1 and Zrt1 as iron and zinc micronutrient transceptors for activation of the PKA pathway in Saccharomyces cerevisiae

Joep Schothorst^1,2, Griet Van Zeebroeck^1,2 and Johan M. Thevelein^1,2

We now show that the yeast high-affinity iron transporter Ftr1 and high-affinity zinc transporter Zrt1 function as transceptors for the micronutrients iron and zinc. We show that replenishment of iron to iron-starved cells or zinc to zinc-starved cells triggers within 1-2 minutes a rapid surge in trehalase activity, a well-established PKA target.

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Chromosome-condensed G1 phase yeast cells are tolerant to desiccation stress

November 26, 2021

The budding yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae is capable of surviving extreme water loss for a long time. However, less is known about the mechanism of its desiccation tolerance. In this study, we revealed that in an exponential culture, all desiccation tolerant yeast cells were in G1 phase and had condensed chromosomes. (...)

Detection of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) and its first variants in fourplex real-time quantitative reverse transcription-PCR assays

November 25, 2021

The early diagnosis of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infections is required to identify and isolate contagious patients to prevent further transmission of SARS-CoV-2. In this study, we present a multitarget real-time TaqMan reverse transcription PCR (rRT-PCR) assay for the quantitative detection of SARS-CoV-2 and some of its circulating variants harboring mutations that give the virus a selective advantage. Seven different primer-probe sets that included probes containing locked nucleic acid (LNA) nucleotides were designed to amplify specific wild-type and mutant sequences in Orf1ab, Envelope (E), Spike (S), and Nucleocapsid (N) genes (...)

Forced association of SARS-CoV-2 proteins with the yeast proteome perturb vesicle trafficking

October 27, 2021

This work demonstrates that the yeast Synthetic Physical Interactions method is a rapid way to identify potential functions of ectopic viral proteins.

Airborne bacteria in show caves from Southern Spain

July 26, 2021

This study analyzes the factors conditioning the diversity of airborne bacteria recorded in three Andalusian show caves, subjected to different managements.

Landscapes and bacterial signatures of mucosa-associated intestinal microbiota in Chilean and Spanish patients with inflammatory bowel disease

June 18, 2021

This study investigates the landscapes and alterations of mucosa-associated intestinal microbiota in patients with inflammatory bowel diseases, which cause chronic inflammation of the gut, including ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease.

Genome, transcriptome and secretome analyses of the antagonistic, yeast-like fungus Aureobasidium pullulans to identify potential biocontrol genes

June 8, 2021

This study highlights the value of a sequential approach starting with genome mining and consecutive transcriptome and secretome analyses in order to identify a limited number of potential target genes for detailed, functional analyses in Aureobasidium pullulans.

Barcode sequencing and a high-throughput assay for chronological lifespan uncover ageing-associated genes in fission yeast

May 10, 2021

This work presents two approaches to study chronological lifespan (CLS) for medium- to high-throughput applications, a method for Bar-seq to identify mutants showing altered CLS and a novel medium-throughput colony-forming units assay that can be largely automated by robotics.