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J. Biol. Chem., Vol. 281, Issue 48, 36632-36642, December 1, 2006
The Transcriptional Response of the Yeast Na+-ATPase ENA1 Gene to Alkaline Stress Involves Three Main Signaling Pathways*
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| ABSTRACT |
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| INTRODUCTION |
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The Ena1 P-type ATPase also represents a major element in the detoxification of sodium and lithium cations and ena1 mutants are largely defective in cation efflux and extremely sensitive to these toxic ions. ENA1 is the first member of a cluster composed by four to five genes encoding very similar proteins (ENA1ENA5) (4, 5, 7) and, although early work suggested post-transcriptional regulation of the ATPase (5), compelling evidence indicates that regulation of the Na+-ATPase function in the cell is mainly based on the control of the expression of the gene. ENA1 is hardly expressed under standard growth conditions, but its expression is rapidly induced after exposure to saline, osmotic or alkaline stress. The complex regulation of ENA1 expression after saline stress (8) has been characterized in some detail in the past. The presence of glucose in the medium represses ENA1 expression by a mechanism that involves the Snf1 kinase and the repressor complex Mig1-Ssn6-Tup1, which targets to a MIG element located at position 534/544 in the ENA1 promoter (9, 10). In addition to the release from Mig1-mediated repression, induction of ENA1 by high salt involves at least three different pathways. Activation of the HOG pathway in response to high osmolarity results in phosphorylation and activation of the Hog1 mitogen-activated protein kinase, which migrates to the nucleus and phosphorylates the Sko1 repressor (9). Phosphorylation of Sko1 prevents its binding to the cAMP response element present in the promoter at position 502/509. Activation of the ENA1 promoter by high salt is also greatly influenced by the calcineurin pathway (5, 8, 1114). Activation of calcineurin increases ENA1 transcription through dephosphorylation and activation of the Crz1/Tcn1/Hal8 transcription factor (1517), which binds to specific DNA sequences (calcineurin-dependent response elements). In the case of the ENA1 promoter, two such elements are present at positions 813/821 and 719/727, the downstream element being more important for the transcriptional response under saline stress (18). Finally, a role of the TOR pathway in the regulation of ENA1 expression has been documented. In this case, saline stress would inhibit the TOR pathway, so the Gln3 and Gat1 transcription factors would no longer be retained in the cytoplasm and, upon entry into the nucleus, would activate ENA1 by (presumably) binding to the diverse GATA sequences present in the ATPase gene promoter (19).
In contrast to the fairly well defined response of ENA1 to high salt, the mechanisms underlying its activation by alkaline stress are not fully understood. Current evidence suggests that high pH stress triggers a burst of cytoplasmic calcium that results in activation of calcineurin and subsequent Crz1-dependent induction of ENA1 expression (20, 21). Functional mapping of the promoter revealed that the calcineurin-dependent pH-responsive region could be restricted to a region, named ARR1, which contains the calcineurin-dependent response element at 719/727, whereas a second pH-responsive but calcium-independent region (ARR2) was located downstream ARR1, spanning from position 490 to 573 (21). Induction of ENA1 by high pH is also influenced by the Rim101 pathway. Rim101, a transcription factor initially identified as a positive regulator of gene expression in meiosis and sporulation (22), is a homolog of the Aspergillus nidulans PacC pH response regulator (23). S. cerevisiae rim101 mutants display sensitivity to high pH and decreased expression of several genes induced by high pH (24). However, in contrast to what is known in A. nidulans, there is evidence that Rim101 acts in vivo as a repressor that targets to, at least, two previously known transcriptional repressors: Smp1 and Nrg1 (25). It has been proposed that activation of Rim101 would block the expression of Nrg1, thus releasing the ENA1 promoter from the negative control exerted by the repressor. Consistent with this model, alkaline induction of ENA1 is impaired in a rim101 mutant (21, 24, 25) and this effect is suppressed by deletion of Nrg1 (25).
The ENA1 promoter contains two sequences that were recognized as consensus binding sites for Nrg1 (CCCTC and CCCCT), at positions 725/729 and 647/651, respectively (25). The former is located in ARR1 and, in fact, overlaps with the downstream calcineurin-dependent response element sequence found in this region. The latter is located between ARR1 and ARR2, and is probably not functional because this segment of the promoter is not responsive to high pH (21). In contrast, whereas functional mapping of the ENA1 promoter revealed that the alkaline response from both ARR1 and ARR2 regions was clearly reduced by mutation of RIM101, no evident Nrg1 site was identified in ARR2 (21). Furthermore, there is evidence that blocking the calcineurin-mediated response in a rim101 mutant does not fully abolish the transcriptional response of ENA1 to alkaline stress and that the ARR2 region of this promoter must contain regulatory elements other than those controlled by Rim101 (21). All these evidence definitely indicates that still unknown, Rim101- and calcineurin-independent regulatory components of the ENA1 response to high pH stress must exist. In this work we characterize a third regulatory pathway relevant in this response and provide a working model that integrates our current knowledge in this field.
| EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDURES |
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was used as a host for DNA cloning experiments. Bacterial cells were grown at 37 °C in LB medium containing, when needed, 50 µg/ml ampicillin for plasmid selection. E. coli cells were transformed by standard treatment with calcium chloride (27). S. cerevisiae cells were transformed by a modification of the lithium acetate method (28). Restriction mapping, DNA ligations, and other recombinant DNA techniques were carried out by standard methods (27). Purification of DNA fragments from complex mixtures, including PCRs and restriction nuclease digests was performed by agarose gel electrophoresis. The appropriate bands were recovered from agarose gel slices using the Agarose Gel DNA Extraction Kit (Roche). Deletion Cassettes and Gene DisruptionsThe mig2::TRP1 cassette was constructed as follows. A 1.76-kbp6 region of the MIG2 genomic locus, spanning from nucleotides 809 to +1149 from the start codon, was amplified by PCR using primers mig2_5'_SalI and mig2_3'_PstI, which contain artificial SalI and PstI restriction sites (the sequence of oligonucleotides used in this work can be found in supplemental Table 1). The amplification fragment was cloned into the SalI/PstI sites of plasmid pBluescript-SK, to give pBS-MIG2. A 387-bp SnaBI/NheI fragment of the open reading frame was replaced by a 1.0-kbp TRP1 marker recovered from plasmid YDp-W by digestion with SmaI/NheI, yielding plasmid pBS-MIG2::TRP1. This plasmid was digested with StuI/AfeI and the 2.0-kbp fragment obtained was used to transform the yeast cells. The nrg1::kanMX4 disruption cassette was amplified using oligonucleotides 5'-nrg1_disr and 3'-nrg1_disr from genomic DNA obtained from a nrg1::kanMX4 mutant in the BY4741 background, in which the entire NRG1 open reading frame was replaced by the heterologous marker (29). A similar strategy, using the appropriate deletion mutants, was used to generate the nrg2::kanMX4 (oligonucleotides 5'-nrg2_disr and 3'-nrg2_disr) and mig1::kanMX4 (5'-mig1 _disr and 3'-mig1_disr). Disruption of NRG1 with the nat1 marker was accomplished as follows. A 2.1-kbp DNA fragment encompassing the NRG1 gene was amplified from genomic DNA by PCR using oligonucleotides 5'-nrg1_comp and 3'-nrg1_disr. The fragment was digested with XbaI and PmlI, yielding a 1.7-kbp fragment that was cloned into the XbaI and HincII sites of pBluescript-SK to generate pBS-NRG1. This construct was digested with EcoRI and HincII and the 0.8-kbp fragment replaced by the 1.27-kbp nat1 gene fragment recovered from plasmid pAG25 (30) by digestion with EcoRI and PvuII. The resulting construct, pBS-NRG1::nat1, was then digested with XbaI and XhoI and the 2.15-kbp fragment was released used to transform yeast cells. Disruption of the NRG2 gene by the marker TRP1 was generated as follows. A 2.0-kbp region of the NRG2 locus was amplified by PCR from genomic DNA, prepared from the DBY746 wild type strain, using oligonucleotides 5'-nrg2_disr, which contains an artificial restriction EcoRI site, and 3'-nrg2_disr, which contains an artificial PstI site. This fragment was cloned into the same sites of plasmid pBluescript-SK to give plasmid pBS-NRG2, which was digested with NheI/HincII to remove a 652-bp internal region. This region was replaced by a 1.0-kbp TRP1 marker recovered from plasmid YDp-W by digestion with SmaI/NheI, to yield plasmid pBS-NRG2::TRP1. This plasmid was digested with EcoRI/SmaI and the 2.2-kbp fragment obtained was used to transform the appropriate yeast strain.
Strain MP005 (rim101 snf1) was generated by transformation of strain RSC21 (rim101) with the snf1::LEU2 cassette recovered from plasmid pCC107::LEU2 (31) after digesting with restriction enzymes BamHI and HindIII. Strains MP012 (mig1 mig2) and MP015 (snf1 mig2) were made by introducing the mig2::TRP1 cassette into strains RSC13 (mig1) and RSC10 (snf1), respectively. Strains MP009 (mig1 nrg1) and MP011 (mig2 nrg1) were constructed by transformation of strains RSC13 (mig1) and MP010 (mig2) with the nrg1::kanMX4 cassette. Strains MP013 (mig1 mig2 nrg1) and MP020 (snf1 nrg1) were generated by introducing the cassette nrg1::kanMX4 into strains MP012 and RSC10, respectively. Strains MP014 (snf1 mig1) and MP016 (snf1 mig2 mig1) were generated by transformation of strains RSC10 and MP015, respectively, with the cassette mig1::kanMX4. Strain MP019 (nrg1 nrg2) was constructed by transforming strain MP008 (nrg1) with the nrg2::TRP1 disruption cassette. Strains MP021 (snf1 nrg2) and MAR194 (mig1 mig2 nrg2) were obtained by transformation of strains RSC10 and MP012 with the nrg2::kanMX4 disruption cassette. Strain MP022 (nrg1 nrg2 snf1) was generated by introducing the snf1::LEU2 cassette into MP019 strain. Strain MAR195 (nrg2 rim101) was obtained by transformation of strain MP018 (nrg2::TRP1) with the rim101::kanMX4 disruption cassette (21). Strains MAR198 (mig1 mig2 nrg1), MAR199 (mig1 mig2 nrg2 nrg1), MAR200 (nrg2 rim101 nrg1), and MAR206 (rim101 nrg1) were constructed by introducing the cassette nrg1::nat1 in strains MP012, MAR194, MAR195, and RSC21, respectively.
Construction of
-Galactosidase ReportersThe following reporter plasmids, containing diverse regions of the ENA1 promoter, were used. Construction of pMRK213 and pKC201 was described in Refs. 21 and 10, respectively. Plasmids pMRK505, pMRK525, and pMRK564 were constructed as follows: the corresponding ENA1 promoter region was amplified by standard PCR using the appropriate primers (see supplemental data) and plasmid pKC201, which contains the entire promoter, as a template. The PCR products were digested by restriction enzymes XhoI and SalI and cloned into the XhoI restriction site of pSLF
-178K. This plasmid is a CYC1 promoter-lacZ fusion from which the CYC1 UAS elements have been deleted (32). All inserts were verified by sequencing using the BigDye Terminator version 3.1 Cycle Sequencing Kit (Applied Biosystems).
-Galactosidase Activity AssaysYeast cells were grown to saturation in the appropriate drop-out media overnight and then inoculated in YPD at A660 0.2. Growth was resumed until A660 of 0.5 to 0.7 and cultures were then distributed into 1.0-ml aliquots and centrifuged for 5 min at 1620 x g. The supernatant was discarded and cultures were resuspended in the appropriate media. Unless otherwise stated, alkaline stress was provoked by resuspending cells in YPD containing 50 mM TAPS adjusted to pH 8.5 by addition of potassium hydroxide (autoclaving decreases the pH of the medium up to pH 8.0 approximately). Non-induced cells were resuspended in YPD medium adjusted to pH 6.3 after autoclaving. Cell were grown for 60 min and
-galactosidase activity assayed as described (33). Saline stress was induced by addition of 0.4 M NaCl. Growth was resumed and cells were collected after 60 min.
Real-time Reverse Transcriptase-PCRSaturated cultures of the appropriate strains were diluted to A660 of 0.2 in YPD and grown up to A660 of 0.50.7. Then, two 10-ml aliquots of each culture were centrifuged during 5 min at 1620 x g at room temperature and pellets were resuspended in 10 ml of fresh YPD containing 50 mM TAPS buffered at pH 8.0 (alkaline induction) or YPD (no induction), respectively. After 10 min, cells were harvested by centrifugation for 2 min at 1620 x g at 4 °C, washed once with cold water, and centrifuged again to obtain cell pellets that were immediately frozen and stored at 80 °C until RNA purification. When inhibition of calcineurin was desired, FK506 (final concentration of 1.5 µg/ml) was added to the medium 1 h prior initiation of the alkaline treatment. The drug was also present in final resuspension media during stress.
Total RNA was purified using the RiboPure-Yeast kit (Ambion) following the manufacturer's instructions. RNA quality was assessed by denaturing 0.8% agarose gel electrophoresis and RNA quantification was performed by measuring A260 in a BioPhotometer (Eppendorf). Real time PCR was performed in a SmartCycler (Cepheid) apparatus, using the QuantiTect SYBR Green reverse transcriptase-PCR kit (Qiagen) and 10 ng of total RNA. For ENA1 amplification, oligonucleotides ENA1fw and ENA1rev were used. Control experiments were carried out by amplifying a fragment of the PHO84 gene using oligonucleotides PHO84fw and PHO84rev. In this case, due to the slower induction of this gene after alkaline stress, cell samples were taken after 30 min of induction. Reverse transcription was performed for 30 min at 50 °C, followed by incubation at 95 °C for 15 min. Finally, 45 PCR cycles (15 s at 94 °C, 30 s at 50 °C, and 30 s at 72 °C) were carried out.
Expression in E. coli of S. cerevisiae Nrg1For expression in E. coli, the NRG1 open reading frame (approximately 0.7 kbp) was amplified by PCR using oligonucleotides 5'-Nrg1 and 3'-Nrg1. The amplification fragment was cleaved with BamHI and XhoI restriction enzymes and cloned into the BamHI-XhoI site of pGEX-4T-1 (Amersham Biosciences) to yield plasmid pGEX-4T1-Nrg1. E. coli BL21-Codon Plus (DE3)-RIL cells (Stratagene) were transformed with plasmid pGEX-4T1-Nrg1 and grown overnight at 37 °C in LB medium containing 100 µg/ml ampicillin and 34 µg/ml chloramphenicol. The culture was then diluted 1/10 in the same medium and cultures were grown to an A660 of 0.60.8. At this point isopropyl
-D-thiogalactopyranoside was added to the medium to a final concentration of 1 mM and cells were induced for 3 h at 37°C. Cells were centrifuged at 1620 x g at 4 °C, washed twice, and resuspended in ice-cold lysis buffer (20 ml/liter of culture) that contained 50 mM Tris-HCl (pH 7.5), 150 mM NaCl, 2 mM dithiothreitol, 10% glycerol, and 0.1% Triton X-100, plus a protease inhibitor mixture (0.5 mM phenylmethylsulfonyl fluoride, 0.5 mM benzamidine, 1 µg/ml pepstatin A, 1 µg/ml leupeptin). Cells were harvested by sonication (3 x 15 s), centrifuged at 800 x g at 4 °C for 5 min, and the supernatant collected. The GST-Nrg1 fusion protein was purified by incubating the bacterial crude lysate with glutathione-Sepharose 4B beads (Amersham Biosciences), allowing gentle shaking for 1 h at 4 °C. GST-Nrg1 was eluted with a 10 mM glutathione solution (50 mM Tris-HCl, pH 7.5, 150 mM NaCl, 2 mM dithiothreitol).
Electrophoresis Mobility Shift AssaysProbes were labeled with 32P by PCR using [
-32P]dCTP and the appropriate primers, and purified using S-200 HR microspin columns (Amersham Biosciences). Various amounts of GST-Nrg1 were incubated with 10 ng of
-32P-labeled probe (
10,000 cpm) and 1 µg of poly(dI-dC) for 30 min at 30 °C in a reaction volume of 20 µl containing 20 mM HEPES (pH 7.6), 1 mM MgCl2, 60 mM KCl, 12% glycerol, 6 µg of bovine serine albumin, 10 µM ZnCl2, and 1 mM dithiothreitol. Probe 578, which was added as a nonspecific competitor where indicated, was obtained by amplification from genomic DNA of the 578/640 region of the ENA1 promoter, using primers ena1_pr_5'_640 and ena1_pr_3'_578. The reaction samples were loaded onto 5% non-denaturing polyacrylamide gels and electrophoresed at 150 V for 3 h in a 22.5 mM Tris base, 22.5 mM boric acid, and 0.63 mM disodium EDTA buffer, adjusted to pH 8.0. The gel was dried and subjected to autoradiography.
Chromatin Immunoprecipitation AssayThe NRG1-HA strain was obtained by transformation of the W303-1A wild type strain with a modification module containing as selectable marker the E. coli kanr gene. The resulting strain has the 3' end of NRG1 tagged with 3 hemagglutinin epitope (HA) sequences. The C-terminal modification module was obtained by PCR using as template plasmid pFA6a-3HA-kanMX6 (34) and primers containing the NRG1-specific sequences of the forward primer (O5) chosen to end just upstream of the stop codon, preserving the reading frame of the tag, whereas those of the reverse primer (O6) to end just downstream of the stop codon. To test the Nrg1-HA construct we used immunoblot analysis. Twenty to 40 µg of proteins from a NRG1-HA yeast extract were separated by SDS-12% polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis and transferred to enhanced chemiluminescence nitrocellulose membranes (Amersham Biosciences) by electroblotting, which were then incubated with an anti-HA antibody (Santa Cruz Biotechnology, Santa Cruz, CA). Horseradish peroxidase-conjugated protein A was used as secondary reactant. The complex was detected by the ECL detection system (Amersham Biosciences).
Chromatin immunoprecipitation assays were performed essentially as described previously (35, 36) with the following modifications. Yeasts cells were grown in 100 ml of low pH (pH 6.2) YPD medium at 28 °C to an A600 nm of 1.0. The cells from one-half (50 ml) of the culture were shifted from low to high pH (pH 8.0) YPD medium for 30 min. Each sample was treated with formaldehyde (final concentration 1%) for 60 min at 20 °C, and 2.5 ml of 2.5 M glycine was added to stop the cross-linking reaction. Cells were harvested and disrupted by vortexing in the presence of glass beads, and the lysate was sonicated to generate DNA fragments that ranged in size from 300 to 500 bp. To immunoprecipitate HA-tagged proteins, we incubated the extract overnight at 4 °C with anti-HA antibodies, and the extract/antibody mixture was incubated for 34 h with protein A-Sepharose beads (Amersham Biosciences). Immunoprecipitates were washed 4-fold with 1 ml each of lysis buffer (50 mM HEPES, pH 7.5, 250 mM NaCl, 1 mM EDTA, 1% Triton X-100, 0.1% sodium deoxycholate, 1 mM phenylmethylsulfonyl fluoride, 1 µg/ml leupeptin, and 1 µg/ml pepstatin A). The DNA was eluted with elution buffer (100 mM sodium bicarbonate and 1% SDS). After reversal of the formaldehyde-induced cross-links, 1/5000 of input DNA and 1/45 of each immunoprecipitated DNA were used as templates for amplification by PCR (35 cycles), using primers O1 (sense), O2 (sense), O3 (sense), and O4 (antisense). Band intensities were quantified using the 1D Image Analysis Software (Kodak Digital Science).
Growth TestsSensitivity of yeast cells to high pH was evaluated by growth on liquid cultures performed in 96-well plates. Two hundred fifty-µl cultures at an initial A of 0.01 were grown for 1420 h at 28 °C in YPD containing 66050 mM TAPS buffered at the indicated pH values. Growth was monitored in an iEMS Reader MF apparatus (Labsystems) at 620 nm.
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| RESULTS |
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Effect of Lack of the Snf1 Protein Kinase and the Mig1,2 Transcriptional RepressorsBecause of the presence of a MIG element in the MCIR region, we considered it necessary to evaluate the possible role of the Mig1 and Mig2 repressors, which are able to bind to the MIG element. As shown in Fig. 2, mutation of Mig1 or Mig2 barely affects the response to high pH, although slightly higher basal levels (that is, in the absence of stress) are observed. In contrast, mutation of both genes results in markedly increased basal levels and enhanced response to alkaline stress. Interestingly, mutation of the Snf1 protein kinase, which is known to inhibit Mig1, results in a dramatic decrease in response, suggesting that this kinase plays an important role in controlling activation of the ENA1 promoter by acting on the ARR2 region. We also observed that the expression from the MCIR region in a strain lacking both Snf1 and Mig1 is identical to that found in the snf1 mutant. In contrast, the response in the snf1 mig2 mutant was almost as strong as in the mig2 strain. The fact that a strain lacking both Mig1 and Mig2 proteins was still able to promote induction from the MCIR after alkaline shock suggests that additional regulatory elements must be present in this region. Interestingly, mutation of SNF1 markedly decreased the very high expression characteristic of the mig1 mig2 strain. This could be explained if one assumes that Snf1 is controlling an additional negative regulator of ENA1 expression located within the ARR2 region.
Influence of the Rim101 Pathway in the Alkaline Induction from the MCIRWe had previously observed that mutation of RIM101 decreased the response from the ARR2 region of the ENA1 promoter (21). Therefore, it was reasonable to assume that the Rim101 pathway could provide the missing regulatory mechanisms mentioned above. To test this, we constructed strains lacking the RIM101 gene, as well as the Nrg1 and Nrg2 repressors that have been shown to be functionally related to Rim101, and tested the expression in these cells from the reporter plasmid pMRK505. As it can be observed in Fig. 3, cells lacking Rim101 presented a decreased response, although the decrease was not as strong as in the case of snf1 cells. The absence of Nrg1 resulted in increased basal expression and response to high pH, whereas mutation of NRG2 had little effect and the expression level in the double mutant was only slightly higher than in the nrg1 strain. These results were indicative that Nrg1 was playing a repressor role in the alkaline response from the MCIR region. We observed that mutation of NRG1 strongly increases the basal levels and alkaline response from plasmid pMRK505 in the rim101 mutant, whereas mutation of NRG2 has almost no effect. Therefore, lack of Nrg1, but not Nrg2, abolishes the decrease in response from the MCIR to the high pH observed in the rim101 mutant. Because Nrg1 and Nrg2 are also known to be under regulation of the Snf1 kinase, we constructed cells deficient in all possible combinations of these genes and tested expression from pMRK505. As shown in Fig. 3, mutation of NRG1 drastically counteracts the effect of the snf1 mutation, whereas lack of Nrg2 has no effect. Taken together, these results suggested that both Snf1 and Rim101 may act by controlling the repressor effect of Nrg1, being the role of Nrg2 virtually negligible.
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To test the biological relevance of the binding of Nrg1 to the ARR2 region, we carried out chromatin immunoprecipitation experiments. For this purpose, we replaced in the wild type strain W303-1A the native NRG1 open reading frame with a HA-tagged version and immunoprecipitated, using anti-HA antibodies, fragmented genomic DNA prepared from this strain. As shown in Fig. 6, from the immunoprecipitated DNA we could specifically amplify fragments surrounding the ARR2 region, indicating that binding was occurring in vivo under standard culture conditions. More importantly, when the same experiment was made in cells subjected to alkaline shock for 30 min, the amount of amplified material was substantially reduced. It is worth noting that this does not appear to be a general, nonspecific effect because in a parallel experiment, using HA-tagged Med8 (which binds to the HXK2 gene), binding was not altered in cells exposed to high pH (not shown). These results provide evidence that Nrg1 binds in vivo to the ARR2 region and that this binding is altered as a result of sudden environmental alkalinization.
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-galactosidase reporter, inhibition of calcineurin in a strain lacking Snf1 and Rim101 fully blocks the high pH-induced expression of the ENA1 gene. In contrast, induction of the PHO84 gene was unaltered in this strain when compared with wild type cells (not shown). As mentioned in the Introduction, ENA1 expression can be induced by saline as well as by alkaline stress. We wanted to compare the relative relevance of the pathways studied in this work in response to both types of stress. Cells were exposed to pH 7.9 or 0.4 M NaCl, because these treatments provoke an ENA1 response of similar potency and timing. Under these conditions (Fig. 7B), the induction of ENA1 by saline stress and high pH was similarly decreased in a calcineurin mutant. In contrast, lack of Snf1 had a strong effect on the alkali-induced response but produced only a moderate decrease in expression in cells exposed to NaCl. Mutation of RIM101 barely affected the response to saline stress.
We have also compared how blockage of the three signaling pathways affects cell tolerance to high pH. As shown in Fig. 8, chemical inhibition of the calcineurin pathway and mutation of SNF1 decrease similarly the tolerance to high pH, whereas mutation of RIM101 has a lesser effect. In all cases, the phenotype observed was less intense than that produced by the absence of the ATPase gene. However, cells lacking both Snf1 and Rim101 grown in the presence of the calcineurin inhibitor FK506 were clearly more sensitive to high pH than ena14 cells.
| DISCUSSION |
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Our results provide the basis to understand how Nrg1 regulates ENA1 expression. Previous results indicated that alkaline-induced expression from both ARR1 and ARR2 regions were sensitive to the absence of Rim101 (21). It has been suggested that Nrg1 could bind to two sequences (CCCCT and CCCTC) that occur in the ENA1 promoter at positions 650 and 725, respectively (25). However, whereas the latter may well account for the decreased response from the ARR1 region in a rim101 strain, the former occurs in a region between ARR1 and ARR2 that has been shown to be insensitive to high pH (21). In addition, this location would not explain the presence of a Rim101-sensitive component within the ARR2 region (21). In this work we present evidence that the Nrg1 binding element must be located at the 5'-end of ARR2, comprising nucleotides 561/573. Interestingly, this short region does contain, in the non-coding strand, a AGACCCT sequence that is somewhat different from the initially proposed sequence for recognition by Nrg1 (37) but that closely matches the consensus sequence ggAC-CCT, identified in very recent studies as a very likely Nrg1 binding element (40, 41). Therefore, we propose that this sequence is responsible for the control exerted by the Rim101 pathway on the ARR2 region of ENA1. The fact that we detect in vivo binding of Nrg1 to the ARR2 region and that this binding is substantially decreased upon exposure of the cells to high pH stress provides further support to our hypothesis and suggest that Nrg1 binding to this region has physiological relevance.
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On the basis of previously reported data and the experiments presented here it is clear that the mechanisms for controlling ENA1 expression in response to saline and alkaline stress are somewhat overlapping but not identical. Whereas the calcineurin pathway plays a relevant role in both saline and alkaline stress, mapping of the ARR2 region clearly shows that the cAMP response element responsible for derepression of the ENA1 promoter in response to osmotic stress (9, 44) is irrelevant under alkaline stress. This result allows explaining the previous observations that a hog1 mutant has unaltered ENA1 transcriptional response (21) and does not display increased sensitivity under high pH conditions. Our observation that blocking calcineurin, Snf1, and Rim101 pathways fully abolishes the response from the ENA1 promoter suggests that, in contrast to what has been described for saline stress (19), the TOR pathway and the Gln3/Gat1 GATA transcription factors are not relevant for ENA1 regulation under alkaline stress. This is remarkable, because Ure2, Gln3, and Gat1 have been found to be required for normal high pH tolerance (4547). Therefore, the pH-related phenotypes of these mutant strains cannot be explained through a role for the corresponding gene products in the control of ENA1 expression.
The Ena1 ATPase plays an important role in the adaptation to high pH conditions, as evidenced by the intense pH-sensitive phenotype of a strain defective in the ATPase function. However, we observe (Fig. 8) that simultaneous blockage of the three main pathways governing ENA1 expression under alkaline stress results in a phenotype substantially stronger than that observed for the ATPase-deficient strain. This clearly indicates that one or more of these pathways play role(s) relevant for high pH tolerance that are independent of the ATPase function. Although this investigation is out of the scope of the present work, possible alternatives can be envisaged. For instance, it is suggestive that the calcineurin pathway was found to be relevant in the maintenance of cell integrity in front of cell wall damaging conditions (48, 49), whereas exposure to high pH has been recently proposed as a circumstance able to induce cell wall damage (20).7
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| FOOTNOTES |
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The on-line version of this article (available at http://www.jbc.org) contains supplemental Table S1. ![]()
1 Currently holds a fellowship from the Spanish Ministry of Education and Science. ![]()
2 Recipient of a fellowship from the Generalitat de Catalunya, Spain. ![]()
3 Recipient of a fellowship from the Spanish Ministry of Education and Science. ![]()
4 Recipient of a fellowship from FICYT (Fundación para el Fomento en Asturias de la Investigación Científica Aplicada y la Tecnología). ![]()
5 Recipient of "Ajut de Support a les Activitats dels Grups de Recerca" Grant 2005SGR-00542, Generalitat de Catalunya. To whom correspondence should be addressed: Dept. Bioquímica i Biologia Molecular, Ed. V, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Bellaterra 08193, Barcelona, Spain. Tel.: 34-93-5812182; Fax: 34-93-5812006; E-mail: Joaquin.Arino{at}uab.es.
6 The abbreviations used are: kbp, kilo base pair(s); TAPS, N-[tris(hydroxymethyl)methyl]-3-aminopropanesulfonic acid; MCIR, minimum calcineurin independent response; GST, glutathione S-transferase; HA, hemagglutinin. ![]()
7 R. Serrano, H. Martín, A. Casamayor, and J. Arino, submitted for publication. ![]()
| ACKNOWLEDGMENTS |
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P. Weiss, S. Huppert, and R. Kolling ESCRT-III Protein Snf7 Mediates High-Level Expression of the SUC2 Gene via the Rim101 Pathway Eukaryot. Cell, November 1, 2008; 7(11): 1888 - 1894. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF] |
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T. Ye, K. Elbing, and S. Hohmann The pathway by which the yeast protein kinase Snf1p controls acquisition of sodium tolerance is different from that mediating glucose regulation Microbiology, September 1, 2008; 154(9): 2814 - 2826. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF] |
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C. Hlynialuk, R. Schierholtz, A. Vernooy, and G. van der Merwe Nsf1/Ypl230w participates in transcriptional activation during non-fermentative growth and in response to salt stress in Saccharomyces cerevisiae Microbiology, August 1, 2008; 154(8): 2482 - 2491. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF] |
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M. Momcilovic, S. H. Iram, Y. Liu, and M. Carlson Roles of the Glycogen-binding Domain and Snf4 in Glucose Inhibition of SNF1 Protein Kinase J. Biol. Chem., July 11, 2008; 283(28): 19521 - 19529. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF] |
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S. Blanchin-Roland, G. Da Costa, and C. Gaillardin Ambient pH signalling in the yeast Yarrowia lipolytica involves YlRim23p/PalC, which interacts with Snf7p/Vps32p, but does not require the long C terminus of YlRim9p/PalI Microbiology, June 1, 2008; 154(6): 1668 - 1676. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF] |
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A. Ruiz, R. Serrano, and J. Arino Direct Regulation of Genes Involved in Glucose Utilization by the Calcium/Calcineurin Pathway J. Biol. Chem., May 16, 2008; 283(20): 13923 - 13933. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF] |
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V. S. Anil, P. Rajkumar, P. Kumar, and M. K. Mathew A Plant Ca2+ Pump, ACA2, Relieves Salt Hypersensitivity in Yeast: MODULATION OF CYTOSOLIC CALCIUM SIGNATURE AND ACTIVATION OF ADAPTIVE Na+ HOMEOSTASIS J. Biol. Chem., February 8, 2008; 283(6): 3497 - 3506. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF] |
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A. Ruiz and J. Arino Function and Regulation of the Saccharomyces cerevisiae ENA Sodium ATPase System Eukaryot. Cell, December 1, 2007; 6(12): 2175 - 2183. [Full Text] [PDF] |
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S.-P. Hong and M. Carlson Regulation of Snf1 Protein Kinase in Response to Environmental Stress J. Biol. Chem., June 8, 2007; 282(23): 16838 - 16845. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF] |
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R. Serrano, H. Martin, A. Casamayor, and J. Arino Signaling Alkaline pH Stress in the Yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae through the Wsc1 Cell Surface Sensor and the Slt2 MAPK Pathway J. Biol. Chem., December 29, 2006; 281(52): 39785 - 39795. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF] |
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