A novel Arabidopsis gene causes Bax-like lethality in Saccharomyces cerevisiae.
Overexpression of the mammalian proapoptotic protein Bax induces cell death in plant and yeast cells. The Bax inihibitor-1 (BI-1) gene rescues yeast and plant from Bax-mediated lethality. Using the Arabidopsis BI-1 (AtBI-1) gene controlled by the GAL1 promoter as a cell death suppressor in yeast, Cdf1 (cell growth defect factor-1) was isolated from Arabidopsis cDNA library. Overexpression of Cdf1 caused cell death in yeast, whereas such an effect was suppressed by co-expression of AtBI-1. The Cdf1 protein fused with a green fluorescent protein was localized in the mitochondria and resulted in the loss of mitochondrial membrane potential in yeast. The Bax-resistant mutant BRM1 demonstrated tolerance against Cdf1-mediated lethality, whereas the Deltaatp4 strain was sensitive to Cdf1. Our results suggest that Cdf1 and Bax cause mitochondria-mediated yeast lethality through partially overlapped pathways.
Kawai-Yamada
Maki
M
Institute of Molecular and Cellular Biosciences, The University of Tokyo, 1-1-1 Yayoi, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-0032, Japan. mkawai@iam.u-tokyo.ac.jp
Saito
Yusuke
Y
Jin
Lihua
L
Ogawa
Taro
T
Kim
Kyung-Min
KM
Yu
Li-Hua
LH
Tone
Yoshiko
Y
Hirata
Aiko
A
Umeda
Masaaki
M
Uchimiya
Hirofumi
H
D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D017209:Apoptosis / Q000235:genetics; D017360:Arabidopsis / Q000166:cytology / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D029681:Arabidopsis Proteins / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D015870:Gene Expression; D005804:Genes, Lethal; D017343:Genes, Plant; D008565:Membrane Proteins / Q000235:genetics*; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D012333:RNA, Messenger / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D018749:RNA, Plant / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D011993:Recombinant Fusion Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D012097:Repressor Proteins / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D012441:Saccharomyces cerevisiae / Q000166:cytology / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D017386:Sequence Homology, Amino Acid
C491862:ATBI-1 protein, Arabidopsis; D029681:Arabidopsis Proteins; C502170:CDF1 protein, Arabidopsis; D008565:Membrane Proteins; D012333:RNA, Messenger; D018749:RNA, Plant; D011993:Recombinant Fusion Proteins; D012097:Repressor Proteins