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J. Biol. Chem., Vol. 280, Issue 30, 27561-27568, July 29, 2005
Phosphatidylinositol-4-phosphate 5-Kinase Regulates Fission Yeast Cell Integrity through a Phospholipase C-mediated Protein Kinase C-independent Pathway*![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]()
From the
Received for publication, March 10, 2005 , and in revised form, May 27, 2005.
Fission yeast its3-1 mutant is an allele of the essential gene its3+ that encodes a phosphatidylinositol-4-phosphate 5-kinase (PIP5K) that produces phosphatidylinositol 4,5-bisphosphate. We found that the its3-1 mutant is sensitive to micafungin, a (1,3)- -D-glucan synthase inhibitor, suggesting a cell wall integrity defect. Consistently, its3-1 mutation caused synthetic lethality with a (1,3)- -D-glucan synthase mutant, bgs1-i2, and its3-1 mutant cells showed aberrant localization of green fluorescent protein-Bgs1. Similar aberrant localization of green fluorescent protein-tagged Rgf1, a putative phosphatidylinositol 4,5-bisphosphate-binding guanine nucleotide exchange factor for Rho protein, in its3-1 mutants was observed, suggesting a defective Rgf1/Rho pathway. To unravel the molecular mechanism(s), putative downstream components of PIP5K signaling were analyzed. Unexpectedly, overexpression of phospholipase C (Plc1), but not that of protein kinase C (PKC; Pck1 and Pck2), suppressed the phenotypes of the its3-1 mutant. These findings indicate that PKCs are not involved in the suppression, and further analysis revealed that PKCs are not downstream of Plc1 in fission yeast. Also, the enzymatic activity of Plc1 is essential for the suppression of the phenotypes and for the viability of the its3-1 mutant. These findings suggest that Its3 PIP5K regulates cell integrity through a Plc1-mediated PKC-independent pathway, in addition to the Rho/PKC pathway.
Phosphorylated phosphoinositides play a crucial role in a variety of distinct cellular processes including cell signaling, cell growth, membrane trafficking, transcription, and actin cytoskeletal arrangement (15). The major phosphoinositide phosphatidylinositol 4,5-bisphosphate (PIP2)1 is a substrate for phospholipase C, yielding two essential second messengers, IP3 and diacylglycerol (6). In mammalian cells, IP3 binds to specific receptors and induces the release of calcium from intracellular stores, whereas diacylglycerol activates PKC (7). More recently, it has been shown that PIP2 is directly involved in the maintenance of actin cytoskeleton organization and in endocytosis and synaptic vesicle recycling (8, 9).
We have been studying the phosphoinositide signal transduction pathway in fission yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe because this system is amenable to genetic analysis and has many advantages in terms of its relevance to higher systems. We have developed a genetic screen that utilizes the immunosuppressant drug FK506 and searched for its mutations that display immunosuppressant- and temperature-sensitive phenotypes. By this genetic screen in our previous study, we have isolated its3+ gene that encodes a PIP5K (10). The its3-1 mutant had only low levels of PIP2, consistent with the defective PIP5K activity. In addition, overexpression of Its3 in wild-type cells resulted in a significant increase in the level of PIP2 (10). Similar to its budding yeast homolog Mss4, Its3 is encoded by the essential gene its3+, which, when mutated, causes disorganization of the actin cytoskeleton and aberrant cell morphology (1012). More recently, Its3 has been shown to be required for the synthesis of phosphatidylinositol 3,4,5-trisphosphate in fission yeast (13).
To unravel the signaling pathway regulated by the Its3 PIP5K, we searched for a novel phenotype of the its3-1 mutant and found that the mutant was sensitive to micafungin, a (1,3)-
Strains, Media, and Genetic and Molecular Biology Methods S. pombe strains used in this study are listed in Table I. The complete medium, YPD, and the minimal medium, EMM, have been described previously (14, 15). Standard genetic and recombinant DNA methods (15) were used, except where noted. FK506 was provided by Fujisawa Pharmaceutical Co. (Osaka, Japan). Gene disruptions are denoted by lowercase letters representing the disrupted gene followed by two colons and the wild-type gene marker used for disruption (for example, plc1::ura4+). Also, gene disruptions are abbreviated by the gene and preceded by (for example, plc1). The plc1 cells were a gift from Dr. Toh-e (16). Proteins are denoted by Roman letters, and only the first letter is capitalized (for example, Plc1). pck1 and pck2 cells were prepared as described previously (17).
Gene ExpressionFor ectopic expression of proteins, we used the thiamine-repressible nmt1 promoter (18). Expression was repressed by the addition of 4 µg/ml thiamine to EMM and induced by washing and incubating the cells in EMM lacking thiamine. Tagged or non-tagged genes were subcloned into pREP1 or pREP41 vectors to express the gene at various levels. Maximum expression of the fused gene was obtained using pREP1, whereas pREP41 contained the attenuated version of the nmt1 promoter (19).
To express green fluorescent protein Rgf1-GFP, the complete open reading frame of rgf1+ (SPCC645.07) was amplified by PCR and ligated to the amino terminus of the GFP carrying the S65T mutation (20). To obtain the chromosome-borne Rgf1-GFP, the fused gene was subcloned into the vector containing the ura4+ marker under the authentic rgf1+ promoter and integrated into the chromosome at the rgf1+ gene locus of KP456 (h leu1-32 ura4-D18). The PH domain of mammalian phospholipase C To overexpress the fission yeast homolog of Ipk2, which produces inositol polyphosphates from IP3, the ipk2+ gene (SPAC607.04) including its authentic promoter was amplified with PCR primers (forward primer, 5'-CG-GGA-TCC-GCT-TAC-CCA-ACA-GCT-GTC-3'; reverse primer, 5'-CG-GGA-TCC-TTA-TTC-ATT-CTT-CAG-GAG-CAT-CGC-AAA-AC-3') and subcloned into the multicopy vector as described previously (10). Site-directed Mutagenesis and Generation of Truncated Plc1 MutantsWe constructed a lipase-deficient form of the Plc1 protein in which the conserved Glu486 in the X domain was mutated to Ala (Plc1 E486A). Plc1E486A was generated using the QuikChange mutagenesis kit (Stratagene). In the amplification reaction, the mutant primers 5'-GC-TGC-AAG-TGT-ATT-GCA-ATC-GAT-TGC-TGG-GA-3' and 5'-TC-CCA-GCA-ATC-GAT-TGC-AAT-ACA-CTT-GCA-GC-3' were used to change Glu486 (GAA) into Ala (GCA). This mutation was constructed by analogy to the lipase-deficient mutant Plc1 E341A (22). A series of amino-terminally truncated Plc1 mutants were generated by the PCR technique. A pair of oligonucleotide primers was used to generate each of the mutants. One primer was derived from the carboxyl-terminal region of the Plc1 open reading frame common to the series of mutants (i.e. AAC-TGC-AGC-GGC-CGC-AAA-TGT-CTT-CTT-TTT-TAA-TTT-TC). The second primer was derived in each mutant from the sequence immediately distal to the region to be deleted, as shown in Table II. BamHI and NotI sites were included in the aminoterminal and carboxyl-terminal oligonucleotide primers, respectively, for cloning of the amplified inserts into the pDS472 plasmid allowing glutathione S-transferase tag to be fused to carboxyl terminus (23).
Assays and Miscellaneous MethodsTechniques in light and fluorescent microscopy such as differential interference contrast microscopy and the localization of GFP-tagged proteins were performed as described previously (24). Actin staining using rhodamine-labeled phalloidin was performed as described previously (10). Tetrad analysis to examine the genetic interaction of its3-1 mutant with other mutants was performed as described previously (10). IP3 receptor binding assay was performed as described previously (25, 26).
The its3-1 Mutant and PKC Mutants Showed Hypersensitivity to Cell Wall-damaging AgentsThe its3-1 mutant showed hypersensitivity to micafungin, an inhibitor of (1,3)- -D-glucan synthase (27) (Fig. 1A), suggesting a defect in cell wall integrity. PIP5K is the enzyme that generates PIP2 (which is a substrate for phospholipase C), yielding IP3 and diacylglycerol, which activates PKC in higher eukaryotes in combination with Ca2+ (7), and PKCs have been shown to be involved in cell integrity regulation in lower eukaryotes (28). In this light, we then examined the effect of micafungin on the mutants of putative downstream components of PIP5K signaling, phospholipase C ( plc1), and PKCs ( pck1 and pck2) (Fig. 1B). At a low concentration of micafungin (0.3 µg/ml), the growth of pck2 and its3-1 mutant cells was markedly inhibited as compared with the growth of pck1 cells, which were significantly inhibited, but to a lesser extent. On the other hand, the growth of plc1 and wild-type cells was not affected by 0.3 µg/ml micafungin. At higher concentrations of micafungin (0.6 and 1.2 µg/ml), the growth of pck1, pck2, and its3-1 mutant cells was completely inhibited, whereas the plc1 strain evidently grew, but it did so at a slower rate compared with wild-type cells.
Similar results were obtained with aculeacin A, another inhibitor of (1,3)-
Sensitivity of its3-1 and Other Mutants of the Putative Downstream Components of PIP5K Signaling to Various AgentsAs described above, the mutants of the putative downstream components of PIP5K signaling showed differential sensitivities to micafungin, a (1,3)-
The above-mentioned results showed that the mutants of the putative downstream components of PIP5K signaling exhibited differential sensitivities to various agents, and among these mutants, only the bgs1-i2 mutant showed phenotypes similar to those of the its3-1 mutant, including temperature sensitivity (Table III).
bgs1-i2, a Mutant Allele of the (1,3)-
Lack of Rgf1-GFP Localization at the Cell Tips in its3-1 MutantPrevious works in Saccharomyces cerevisiae showed that PIP2 is required for proper localization of Rom2, a GTPase exchange factor for Rho1, which binds PIP2 through its PH domain to establish its normal functions (33). Also, the primary structure of S. pombe Rgf1 shows high homology to S. cerevisiae Rom2, including its PH domain. Our previous study showed that its3-1 mutant cells contained only about 10% of the amount of PIP2 found in wild-type cells (10), thus raising the possibility that the cell integrity defect of its3-1 mutant is caused by the low level of PIP2 resulting in dysregulation of Rho-GTPase signaling pathway. To examine the localization of Rgf1 in its3-1 mutant, GFP-tagged Rgf1 was constructed. In wild-type cells, Rgf1-GFP localized to the septum ring and cell tips (Fig. 2B). In its3-1 mutant cells, in contrast, although Rgf1-GFP could be detected in the ring area, it was hardly observed at the cell tips. The PH domain of the phospholipase C 1 is known to bind PIP2 (10), so we overexpressed the PH domain of mammalian phospholipase C and examined the localization of Rgf1-GFP in cells overexpressing the PH domain. Results showed that whereas Rgf1-GFP fluorescence was still detected at the ring area (Fig. 2C), the fluorescence at the cell tips disappeared upon overexpression of the PH domain, suggesting that PIP2 levels are sufficiently down-regulated to displace the protein from the tip into the cytoplasm upon overexpression of the PH domain. This also suggests that there are PIP2-dependent and -independent interactions that differentially determine tip and ring localization. The aberrant localization of the Rho-GTPase exchange factor is consistent with the aberrant Rom2 localization in budding yeast mss4 mutant (33). Overexpression of Plc1, but Not That of PKCs, Suppressed the its3-1 Mutant PhenotypesTo further characterize the role of the its3+ gene, we tested the ability of the putative downstream components of PIP5K signaling to suppress phenotypes of its3-1 mutants. As shown in Fig. 3A, its3-1 mutants grew equally well as compared with wild-type cells at 27 °C, but they showed high temperature sensitivity at 33 °C and could not grow on the plate containing FK506 (0.5 µg/ml) or micafungin (0.6 µg/ml) at 27 °C. The overexpression of Plc1, but not that of Pck1 or Pck2, suppressed these phenotypes (Fig. 3A). In addition, overexpression of Rho1, Rho2, Rgf1, or Pck1/Pck2 failed to suppress these mutant phenotypes (Fig. 3B). Other phenotypes of its3-1 mutant, such as defects in cell polarity, actin organization, and cytokinesis, were suppressed by overexpression of Plc1, but not by that of the other putative downstream components of PIP5K signaling (data not shown).
Similar to the its3-1 mutant (10), an aberrant cell polarity was also reported in pck2 cells (34). This prompted us to examine actin reorganization after heat treatment in its3-1 mutant and pck2 cells. In its3-1 mutant cells, the actin patches were partially polarized at 27 °C, and the polarization was completely lost upon temperature upshift to 33 °C (Fig. 3C), consistent with our previous study showing a defective actin reorganization in the mutant (10). In pck2 cells, a shift from 27 °C to 36 °C caused a transient heat-induced disorganization of actin patches, but further incubation at 36 °C restored the normal actin patch distribution (Fig. 3C), suggesting that actin reorganization is not impaired in pck2 cells.
Because overexpression of Plc1 suppressed the phenotypes of the its3-1 mutant, we further examined the genetic interaction between these two genes. We performed tetrad analysis by crossing its3-1 mutant with plc1+ deletion (
These genetic interactions prompted us to examine GFP-Bgs1 and Rgf1-GFP localization in
PKCs Are Not Downstream of Plc1 in Fission YeastAs described above, overexpression of Plc1, but not that of PKCs, suppressed the mutant phenotypes of its3-1 mutant, suggesting that PKCs are not downstream of Plc1 in fission yeast. To test this hypothesis, we performed the following experiments. First, we examined whether overexpression of Plc1 could suppress the micafungin-sensitive phenotype of
In the study by Toda et al. (34), it was reported that Pck2 hyperactivity causes toxicity in wild-type cells. We then examined whether or not Pck2 overexpression would cause toxicity in plc1 and its3-1 mutant cells. Results showed that overexpression of Pck2 (Fig. 4B, Pck2 OP) caused growth defects in plc1 as well as in its3-1 mutant cells to the same extent as that observed in wild-type cells.
Lastly, we examined the effect of overexpression of Plc1, Pck2, and Pck1 on the micafungin sensitivity of the
Deletion of Pck1 or Pck2 Could Not Abolish the Effect of Plc1 Overexpression on its3-1 Mutant PhenotypesBoth the its3-1
Plc1 Enzymatic Activity Is Essential for the Suppression of its3-1 Mutant PhenotypesTo study the mechanism of how Plc1 overexpression suppresses the phenotypes of the its3-1 mutant, we performed Plc1 enzymatic activity assay by measuring the cellular level of IP3 (Table VI). In its3-1 mutant cells, overexpression of Plc1 did not significantly affect the IP3 level. In wild-type cells, however, overexpression of Plc1 showed a 55% increase in IP3 level. Notably, IP3 was not detectable in the
To further investigate the role of Plc1, we constructed a lipase-deficient mutant of Plc1 and tested its ability to suppress the its3-1 mutant phenotypes. Lipase-deficient Plc1E486A, which had no enzymatic activity as confirmed by no increasing IP3 level in plc1 cells, did not complement the its3-1 mutant phenotypes, indicating that phospholipase activity is essential for suppression of the mutant phenotypes (Fig. 6A).
Furthermore, we prepared a series of truncated forms of Plc1 to examine the relationship between the enzymatic activity and the ability to suppress phenotypes of the its3-1 mutant. Structural features of the deletion mutants employed in this study are illustrated in Fig. 6A. In plc1 cells, overexpression of full-length Plc1 as well as Plc1 fragment A increased the IP3 level and also suppressed phenotypes of the its3-1 mutant (Fig. 6, A and B). However, overexpression of Plc1 fragment B lacking the PH domain-like domain showed a significantly increased level of IP3 in plc1 cells but failed to complement the growth defect of its-3 mutant at 33 °C (Fig. 6, A and B). These results suggest that the PH domain-like domain of Plc1 plays an important role for the enzymatic activity or is involved in the regulation of its subcellular localization, which is necessary for suppression of the its3-1 mutant phenotypes. Consistently, by the genetic cross experiments between the its3-1 mutant and plc1 cells transformed with these amino-terminal truncation mutants, results showed that the its3-1 plc1 double mutant cells expressing fragment B failed to grow, suggesting that the enzymatic activity of Plc1 is essential for the viability of the its3-1 mutant (Table VII).
Our previous study suggested that Its3, fission yeast PIP5K, functions coordinately with calcineurin and plays a key role in cytokinesis. To determine whether suppression of the phenotypes of its3-1 mutant by overexpression of Plc1 is due to an activation of calcineurin, we overexpressed ppb1 C, a constitutively active form of calcineurin (31), in its3-1 mutant and plc1cells. As shown in Fig. 6, C and D, overexpression of ppb1 C failed to suppress the phenotypes of its3-1 mutant or plc1 cells.
We also examined whether the suppression depends on inositol polyphosphates, such as inositol tetrakisphosphate, inositol pentakisphosphate, and inositol hexakisphosphate, which are known to act downstream of Plc1 in budding yeast (36). We then overexpressed the ipk2+ gene (SPAC607.04) encoding a homolog of budding yeast Ipk2/Arg82 that produces IP4 and IP5 from IP3 (36) in its3-1 mutant and Two Distinct Cell Integrity Signaling Pathways Downstream of Its3 PIP5KThe above-mentioned results indicate that the proper PIP2 level is important for cell integrity. We then examined the effects of overexpression of Its3 PIP5K on bgs1-i2 mutant that showed synthetic lethality with its3-1 mutant having a low intracellular PIP2 level. In wild-type cells, overexpression of Its3 resulted in a significant increase in the level of PIP2, and the increase in the PIP2 level was dependent on the promoter strength used for overexpression (10). As shown in Fig. 7A, overexpression of Its3 from the attenuated nmt1 promoter using pREP41 vector (19) completely halted the growth of bgs1-i2 cells, suggesting that this cell integrity mutant is sensitive to the increased cellular PIP2 level. Also, the bgs1-i2 cells overexpressing Its3 PIP5K showed extremely aberrant morphology with elongated, swollen, and branched cells (Fig. 7B). As shown in Table VI, overexpression of Its3 in wild-type cells caused a dramatic increase in IP3 level, indicating that PIP2 accumulation and its hydrolysis by Plc1 lead to the increased IP3 level.
To examine whether or not the growth inhibition and aberrant morphology of bgs1-i2 cells caused by overexpression of Its3 are mediated by Plc1, we then overexpressed Plc1 in bgs1-i2 cells and wild-type cells using the same expression vector. Overexpression of Plc1 had no effect on the growth of both cell types (Fig. 7), suggesting that the growth-inhibitory effect of Its3 PIP5K overexpression is directly mediated by PIP2 and is not due to Plc1 activation.
This study demonstrates for the first time the evidence in identifying a novel function of PIP5K that regulates fission yeast cell integrity through a phospholipase C-mediated PKC-independent pathway (Fig. 8). As described above, the defective cell integrity of the its3-1 mutant seems to be derived from its low PIP2 level. However, it is puzzling that the elevated dosage of the plc1+ gene that further decreased the PIP2 level was still able to suppress the phenotype of the its3-1 mutant. Because Plc1 hydrolyzes PIP2 to IP3 and diacylglycerol, either metabolite or both metabolites may exert a beneficial effect on cell integrity. Our present study suggests that the effect of diacylglycerol is not due to activation of PKC and that the effect of IP3 is not mediated by production of inositol polyphosphates. The presence of PKC-like proteins in fission yeast such as Pck1 and Pck2 suggests that the PKC-mediated phosphorylation pathway, activated by diacylglycerol or Ca2+ in mammalian cells, is conserved from yeast to human. However, there has been no evidence for the activation of Pck1 or Pck2 by diacylglycerol or Ca2+ in vitro or in vivo. Studies have shown that Pck2 is not activated by Ca2+ in vitro (37). Studies have also reported that the activity of Pkc1, a budding yeast PKC-like protein that shows high sequence homology to Pck1 and Pck2, is independent of cofactors such as diacylglycerol and Ca2+ (38). In addition to these in vitro data, our present in vivo study shows that the fission yeast PKCs are not downstream of Plc1, which is known to generate diacylglycerol, which activates PKC in mammalian cells. On the other hand, previous genetic studies suggested that the fission yeast PKCs are regulated by Rho protein through interaction with the amino-terminal HR1 domain of PKCs (28, 39). Mammalian Rho protein has been shown to bind to the HR1 domain of protein kinase N/PKC-related protein kinase, another protein kinase subfamily structurally related to PKC, and to activate its kinase activity in vitro (4042). Taken together, it is suggested that lower eukaryotic PKCs are more functionally similar to the mammalian protein kinase N/PKC-related protein kinase subfamily than to the conventional PKCs that are activated by diacylglycerol and Ca2+.
Another puzzling observation in our experiments was the growth phenotype of the plc1 cells in micafungin, an inhibitor of (1,3)- -D-glucan synthase that is a major structural component of the yeast cell wall. Whereas the its3-1 mutant, pck1, and pck2 cells were significantly hypersensitive to micafungin, the plc1 cells, contrary to our expectations, were only slightly more sensitive as compared with the wild-type cells. Notably, the elevated gene dosage of plc1+ suppressed the hypersensitivities of the its3-1 mutants to the cell wall-damaging agents. Thus, it is evident that Plc1 is involved in the regulation of fission yeast cell integrity. One possible explanation for this apparent contradiction is that diacylglycerol is generated by another pathway other than the phospholipase C pathway, thereby maintaining cell integrity. Phospholipase D-catalyzed hydrolysis of phospholipids generates phosphatidic acid that is subsequently metabolized to lyso-phosphatidic acid and diacylglycerol. Phospholipase D activity is stimulated by PIP2 in mammals (43) and S. cerevisiae (44, 45). Thus, it is suggested that the decreased cellular level of PIP2 in the its3-1 mutant may cause a dramatic decrease in cellular diacylglycerol level due to the decreased activity of phospholipase D as well as the decreased level of substrate for phospholipase C, resulting in synthetic lethality with plc1 deletion.
How then does Plc1 regulate cell integrity independently from PKC? A recent study in budding yeast showed that diacylglycerol and its formation by phospholipase C regulate Rab- and soluble NSF attachment protein receptor (SNARE)-dependent vacuole fusion (46). They suggested that diacylglycerol itself plays a role in the promotion of membrane fusion. However, we do not know whether or not such a mechanism is involved in the Plc1-mediated regulation of cell integrity in fission yeast. Understanding the mechanism of this phenomenon requires additional studies.
* This work was supported by 21st Century Center of Excellence Program and by research grants from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology of Japan and the Asahi Glass Foundation. The costs of publication of this article were defrayed in part by the payment of page charges. This article must therefore be hereby marked "advertisement" in accordance with 18 U.S.C. Section 1734 solely to indicate this fact.
1 The abbreviations used are: PIP2, phosphatidylinositol 4,5-bisphosphate; IP3, inositol 1,4,5-trisphosphate; PKC, protein kinase C; PIP5K, phosphatidylinositol-4-phosphate 5-kinase; YPD, yeast extract/peptone/dextrose; EMM, Edinburgh minimum medium; GFP, green fluorescent protein.
We thank Takashi Toda, Mitsuhiro Yanagida, Akio Toh-e, and Juan C. Ribas for providing strains and plasmids; Susie O. Sio for critical reading of the manuscript; and Fujisawa Pharmaceutical Co. for gifts of FK506.
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