Catabolite inactivation of the sugar transporters in Saccharomyces cerevisiae is inhibited by the presence of a nitrogen source.
Saccharomyces cerevisiae uses glucose preferentially to any other carbon source and this preferential use is ensured by control mechanisms triggered by glucose. The consensus is that inactivation of sugar transporters other than glucose transporters is one of these mechanisms. This inactivation is called catabolite inactivation because of its apparent analogy with the catabolite inactivation of gluconeogenic enzymes. Recently, doubt has been cast on the role of the inactivation of the sugar transporters in controlling the use of glucose because this inactivation neither is specifically triggered by glucose nor specifically affects non-glucose sugar transporters. Based on the fact that this inactivation has been almost exclusively investigated using nitrogen-starved cells, it has been proposed that it might be due to the stimulation of the protein turnover that follows nitrogen starvation. The results obtained in this work support this possibility since they show that the presence of a nitrogen source in the medium strongly inhibited the inactivation. It is concluded that, in growing yeast cells, the contribution of the inactivation by glucose of the non-glucose sugar transporters to the preferential use of glucose is much lower than generally believed.
Lucero
Pilar
P
Instituto de Investigaciones Biomédicas Alberto Sols, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, Arturo Duperier, 4, 28029 Madrid, Spain.
Moreno
Eulalia
E
Lagunas
Rosario
R
D001692:Biological Transport; D002135:Calcium-Binding Proteins; D050260:Carbohydrate Metabolism; D005690:Galactose / Q000378:metabolism; D015966:Gene Expression Regulation, Fungal; D005947:Glucose / Q000378:metabolism; D008320:Maltose / Q000378:metabolism; D009004:Monosaccharide Transport Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D009584:Nitrogen / Q000378:metabolism*; D033902:Periplasmic Binding Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D012441:Saccharomyces cerevisiae / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D029701:Saccharomyces cerevisiae Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D027981:Symporters / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism
D002135:Calcium-Binding Proteins; D009004:Monosaccharide Transport Proteins; D033902:Periplasmic Binding Proteins; D029701:Saccharomyces cerevisiae Proteins; D027981:Symporters; C023550:galactose-binding protein; C067575:maltose transport system, S cerevisiae; D008320:Maltose; D005947:Glucose; D009584:Nitrogen; D005690:Galactose