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Molecular and Cellular Biology, June 2000, p. 4411-4419, Vol. 20, No. 12
Department of Biological Chemistry, Graduate
School of Pharmaceutical Sciences,1
Laboratory of Molecular Neurobiology,3
and Laboratory of Membrane Biochemistry and
Biophysics,2 Graduate School of Biostudies,
Kyoto University, Kyoto 606-8501, and Department of
Pharmaceutical Manufacturing Chemistry, Faculty of Pharmaceutical
Sciences, Setsunan University, Osaka 573-0101,4
Japan
Received 28 December 1999/Returned for modification 31 January
2000/Accepted 13 March 2000
ISP-1 is a new type of immunosuppressant, the structure of which is
homologous to that of sphingosine. In a previous study, ISP-1 was found
to inhibit mammalian serine palmitoyltransferase, the primary enzyme
involved in sphingolipid biosynthesis, and to reduce the intracellular
pool of sphingolipids. ISP-1 induces the apoptosis of cytotoxic T
cells, which is triggered by decreases in the intracellular levels of
sphingolipids. In this study, the inhibition of yeast
(Saccharomyces cerevisiae) proliferation by ISP-1 was
observed. This ISP-1-induced growth inhibition was also triggered by
decreases in the intracellular levels of sphingolipids. In addition,
DNA duplication without cytokinesis was detected in ISP-1-treated yeast
cells on flow cytometry analysis. We have cloned multicopy suppressor
genes of yeast which overcome the lethal sphingolipid depletion induced
by ISP-1. One of these genes, SLI2, is synonymous with
YPK1, which encodes a serine/threonine kinase. Kinase-dead
mutants of YPK1 did not show any resistance to ISP-1,
leading us to predict that the kinase activity of the Ypk1 protein
should be essential for this resistance to ISP-1. Ypk1 protein
overexpression had no effect on sphingolipid biosynthesis by the yeast.
Furthermore, both the phosphorylation and intracellular localization of
the Ypk1 protein were regulated by the intracellular sphingolipid
levels. These data suggest that the Ypk1 protein is a downstream kinase
in the sphingolipid-mediated signaling pathway of yeast. The Ypk1
protein was reported to be a functional homologue of the mammalian
protein kinase SGK, which is a downstream kinase of
3-phosphoinositide-dependent kinase 1 (PDK1). PDK1 phosphotidylinositol (PI) is regulated by PI-3,4,5-triphosphate and PI-3,4-bisphosphate through the pleckstrin homology (PH) domain. Overexpression of mammalian SGK also overcomes the sphingolipid depletion in yeast. Taking both the inability to produce PI-3,4,5-triphosphate and PI-3,4-bisphosphate and the lack of a PH domain in the yeast homologue of PDK1, the Pkh1 protein, into account, these findings further suggest
that yeast may use sphingolipids instead of inositol phospholipids as
lipid mediators.
0270-7306/00/$04.00+0
Copyright © 2000, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.
Sli2 (Ypk1), a Homologue of Mammalian Protein
Kinase SGK, Is a Downstream Kinase in the Sphingolipid-Mediated
Signaling Pathway of Yeast
*
Corresponding author. Mailing address: Laboratory of
Membrane Biochemistry and Biophysics, Graduate School of Biostudies, Kyoto University, Yoshida-shimoadachi, Kyoto 606-8501, Japan. Phone:
81-75-753-4562. Fax: 81-75-753-4605. E-mail:
yasu{at}pharm.kyoto-u.ac.jp.
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