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Molecular and Cellular Biology, April 2007, p. 2897-2909, Vol. 27, No. 8
0270-7306/07/$08.00+0 doi:10.1128/MCB.00064-07
Copyright © 2007, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

Unité de Génétique des Interactions Macromoléculaires, CNRS-URA 2171,1 Plate-Forme Protéomique, Institut Pasteur, 75724 Paris Cedex 15, France2
Received 12 January 2007/ Accepted 6 February 2007
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Studies with budding yeast allowed the identification and functional characterization of a surprisingly large number of proteins and RNAs that participate in the maturation of eukaryotic ribosomes. Since 2001, generic purification methods such as tandem affinity purification (TAP), in association with developments in mass spectrometry, have allowed the identification of about 200 preribosomal factors (15, 16, 20, 29). In contrast to the ribosomal proteins, which associate with the preparticles and remain associated with the mature ribosomes, the preribosomal factors associate transiently with the precursors (for reviews see references 12 and 55). When ribosome biogenesis is blocked, the changes in purified preribosomal complex composition may indicate the order of protein association, dissociation, or subcomplex formation during the pathway (see for example references 19, 35, and 47). Such experiments can also establish the requirement of a given factor for subsequent association of other proteins with the precursors.
We identified Mak11 in complexes purified in association with the pre-60S essential protein Rlp24 and have shown that the amount of copurified Mak11 starkly increased when another essential pre-60S factor, the Nog1 GTPase, was depleted (47). Several known pre-60S factors (Nop7, Tif6, Erb1, and Nop2) were identified in association with Mak11 in a large-scale experiment (20). Recent purification of a large number of macromolecular complexes in yeast further confirmed the presence of Mak11 in predicted pre-60S complexes (15, 29). Moreover, the Mak11 fusion with green fluorescent protein (GFP) was shown to localize to the nucleus and concentrate in the nucleolus of yeast cells (22).
MAK11's name (maintenance of killer) comes from its identification in genetic screens looking for mutations that would affect the maintenance of the M1 toxin-encoding double-stranded RNA (dsRNA), a satellite of the L-A dsRNA yeast virus (54, 61, 62). The RNAs used for the synthesis of the viral proteins have neither a typical 5' cap nor a poly(A) tail (60). Many of the isolated mak mutants showed polysome profiles typical for 60S ribosomal subunit biogenesis impairment (40). It is likely that the identification of 60S ribosomal subunit biogenesis factors among the mak genes was due to the fact that normal 60S ribosomal subunit levels, in contrast to 40S subunit levels, are required for the translation of uncapped and nonpolyadenylated RNAs like those encoding viral proteins (45, 50). Several mutations discovered during the mak screens affected genes like mak7, mak8, or mak18, later identified to be coding for ribosomal proteins (Rpl8a, Rpl3, and Rpl42b, respectively) (40). Other mutations affected genes coding for proteins recently shown to be physically associated with pre-60S particles by large-scale complex purification studies (15, 28). Recently, the requirements of Mak21/Noc1 (10, 36), Mak5 (64), and Mak16 (41) for 60S ribosomal subunit formation were described. One of the mutations described in the genetic screen and having effects on 60S levels affected MAK11, a gene shown to be essential for viability and suspected to be required for 60S subunit biogenesis (40).
Based on the available data, we predicted Mak11 to be an essential factor involved in nuclear maturation of 60S ribosomal subunits. Puzzlingly, while Mak11 putative orthologues exist in many eukaryotes, both the Schizosaccharomyces pombe homologue Skb15 (26, 27) and the human homologue hPip1 (63) have been previously described as direct binders and inhibitors of p21-activated protein kinases (PAKs), Shk1/Pak1 in fission yeast and Pak1 in Homo sapiens. PAKs link different receptors with modification of protein substrates by phosphorylation in the mitogen-activated protein kinase pathway and are directly activated by small GTPases of the Rho or Rac families (for a review see reference 21). PAK activation or inhibition affects major cellular pathways since PAK substrates play important roles in cell polarity and morphology, mitotic exit, and cytokinesis and mediate cellular responses to external stimuli. These signaling pathways are highly conserved as demonstrated by the heterologous complementation of the absence of yeast Ste20 by its human homologue Pak1 (8).
It was surprising that Mak11 homologues were described as modulators of PAK activity affecting central signaling pathways in other eukaryotes, while physical association and functional data strongly suggested that Mak11 is a novel factor involved in 60S ribosomal subunit formation in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. There were two explanations for this discrepancy: either Mak11 was not the homologue of Skb15 and hPip1 or the previously observed effects were secondary to the function of these factors in ribosome biogenesis. We thus tried to understand the role of Mak11 in ribosome biogenesis in S. cerevisiae and tested the putative ribosome biogenesis function for S. pombe Skb15.
We show here that the essential function of Mak11 is linked to an early, nucleolar step of 60S ribosomal subunit biogenesis, and we propose that it serves as an Rlp24 cofactor during the assembly of early pre-60S particles in S. cerevisiae. The ribosome biogenesis function of Mak11 was conserved during evolution, since we could show that Skb15 is required for 60S formation in S. pombe. We conclude that previously observed effects of Mak11 homologues are likely to be secondary to the primary effects of these factors on ribosome biogenesis.
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TABLE 1. S. cerevisiae and S. pombe strains used in this study
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Nmt1-Skb15 and SP870 S. pombe strains were obtained from S. Marcus (University of Alabama). The Skb15-TAP strain was obtained by homologous recombination in the Pb185 strain (gift from B. Arcangioli, Institut Pasteur, Paris, France) using a method adapted from reference 57. Long recombination arms were generated by two successive PCRs from genomic DNA using oligonucleotides A-BamHI (ACG GGA TCC AGG CAA ATC TGT CTA CCC TGT TG), B-XmaI (TGA AAA GGA CGA AGC ATG CCC CCGGG), C-SalI (GGT CGA CCT TAA TAG GGA AAG GAC GGG), and D-BamHI (TGC TAG ATG AGC TAT TTG CCA CGG GAT CCA GG). The product of the second PCR was cloned in pCRBlunt (Invitrogen) and next subcloned in the pFA6a-CTAP-MX6 vector (52) using SalI and XmaI restriction enzyme sites. The resulting plasmid was linearized by digestion with BamHI and used to transform strain Pb185. Clones resistant to G418 were tested by immunoblotting for the presence of the fusion protein.
TAP and in vitro binding assay. Complex purifications were performed as described in reference 44 with a few modifications, starting with 4 liters of yeast culture. Buffers contained 0.1 M NaCl. Eluted proteins were precipitated with methanol-chloroform, separated on a 5 to 20% polyacrylamide gradient-sodium dodecyl sulfate gel, and identified by either immunoblotting or mass spectrometry. Mass spectrometry protein identification was done using matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization-time of flight as described previously (32). For RNA association determination, only the first step of purification was performed, in the presence of vanadyl ribonucleoside complexes as RNase inhibitor. The associated RNAs were extracted twice with phenol-chloroform. To investigate the association of different proteins with purified complexes, tobacco etch virus (TEV) eluates were separated on denaturing polyacrylamide gels, transferred to nitrocellulose membranes (Bio-Rad), and probed with rabbit polyclonal antibodies to Nog2 (46), Nog1 and Rlp24 (47), Nsa2 (30), Arx1 (31), and Mak11 (this work) used at a 1:5,000 dilution. The peroxidase activity of secondary antibodies was detected using either the ECL+ (GE Healthcare) or the Immobilon Western (Millipore) chemiluminescence kit.
In vitro binding was tested as previously described (47) using plasmids expressing glutathione S-transferase (GST)-tagged Rlp24, Rpl3 and Rpl5 (controls) and (His)6-Mak11. The presence of Mak11 in the eluate was estimated by immunoblotting with anti-Mak11 antibodies.
Sucrose gradient sedimentation. Polysomal extracts were obtained using glass bead vortexing. Polysomes were separated on a 10 to 50% sucrose gradient and centrifuged at 39,000 rpm for 2 h 45 min at 4°C in an SW41-Ti rotor. Fractions were recovered with an ISCO fractionator, and the 254-nm absorbance was measured. For protein identification by immunoblotting, the proteins from each fractions were precipitated with 10% trichloroacetic acid and separated on polyacrylamide gels. TAP-tagged proteins were revealed with a 1:10,000 dilution of peroxidase-antiperoxidase complex (Sigma).
RNA extraction, Northern blotting, and primer extension. RNA extractions were performed using glass beads and phenol-chloroform. Large rRNAs were denatured with glyoxal and separated on 1% agarose gels, and small rRNAs were separated on 5% acrylamide-urea denaturing gels. Northern blot assays and primer extensions were performed using 32P-labeled oligonucleotides. The sequences of the oligonucleotides specific for S. cerevisiae were previously described (46). Those related to S. pombe were based on the detected pre-rRNA intermediates previously described (18) and were the following: CS151, TGT CGG AAA GCA TAG CAA GC, for U2 snRNA, used as a control; CS148, AAC AAA TTT TCG TTC AAC ACC TCA TC, used to detect 27S and 7S intermediates; and CS153, CGT TAA GGT TCA AAT ATA AAA GAG, specific for the 27S intermediates.
Screen for mak11 temperature-sensitive (ts) alleles. For the selection of thermosensitive MAK11 alleles, we used mutagenic PCR combined with gap repair (37). A region of genomic S. cerevisiae DNA encompassing the MAK11 open reading frame and 243 nucleotides upstream from the ATG sequence as well as 95 nucleotides downstream from the stop codon was amplified by PCR using oligonucleotides GCT CTA GAA GAC ATT TTT CTA GCT ACA TAA and AGG CGC GCC ATC ATC TTT AAC GAT TAA GATA. The resulting PCR product was cloned in the centromeric vector pFL38 (URA3 marker) using XbaI and AscI sites and verified by sequencing. The obtained pFL38-MAK11 plasmid was able to fully complement MAK11 deletion, and the resulting haploid strain was further used as LMA260. A PCR-based strategy was used for random mutagenesis of the MAK11 sequence. PCRs were performed with oligonucleotides AGA TGC GTA AGG AGA AAA TAC CGC ATC and CGA CTG GAA AGC GGG CAG TGA using pFL38-MAK11 as template. In one case the ratio of dATP to other nucleotides was 1:5 and we used 4 mM MgCl2 combined with 0.5 mM MnCl2, and in another case the ratio of dATP to other nucleotides was 1:10 and the reaction mixture contained 10% dimethyl sulfoxide. The strain LMA260 was transformed with PCR products and pFL36CII linearized by digestion with XbaI and HindIII. A total of 16,000 clones were obtained with around 5,000 of these being able to grow at 25°C on a selective medium containing 5-fluoroorotic acid. After replica plating on selective medium we obtained clones that were able to grow at 25°C but not at 35°C. Plasmids were extracted from nine candidates and tested by retransformation. The strongest ts phenotype was observed for the candidate mak11-2 strain, further used in this study. Sequencing of the mak11-2 allele showed several predicted amino acid changes depicted in Fig. 7.
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FIG. 7. Multiple sequence alignment between Mak11 and putative human (hPip1) and S. pombe (Skb15) homologues. Sequences of yeast Mak11, S. pombe Skb15, and human hPip1 were aligned using ClustalW (53), and similar or identical residues were shaded using BOXSHADE so that residues that have similar properties and are found in all three sequences have a black background while those with similar properties in two out of three sequences have a gray background. The residue changes indicated in the alignment correspond to the observed mutations in the mak11-2 strain. Boxed regions correspond to predicted WD40 motifs.
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Fluorescence microscopy. Cells transformed with a centromeric plasmid expressing RPL25-enhanced GFP (eGFP) or cells expressing chromosomal TAP-tagged fusion proteins were cultured in minimal medium. The protein A part of the TAP tag was detected with anti-protein A antibodies and Cy3 secondary antibodies (42). Observation of the cells by epifluorescence was done as described previously (31).
Fluorescence-activated cell sorting (FACS) analysis. To analyze the cell cycle distribution of the yeast cell population, we used exponentially growing cells in rich medium at 27°C or shifted for up to 6 h at 37°C. Aliquots of 2 ml were retrieved and fixed with 70% cold ethanol for 1 h at room temperature. RNA was digested with RNase A (1 mg/ml in 0.2 M Tris-HCl, pH 7.5, 20 mM EDTA for 1 h at 37°C), and DNA was stained with 50 µg/ml propidium iodide in 0.1 ml phosphate-buffered saline overnight at 4°C. The cell suspension was diluted to 1 ml with phosphate-buffered saline before analysis. Flow cytometry analysis was done using a FACSCalibur (BD Biosciences). One hundred thousand events were used to estimate the ratio between 1n and 2n DNA-containing cells.
Rlp24-TAP half-life estimation. For the analysis of Rlp24-TAP half-life we used a procedure derived from reference 2. Addition of cycloheximide was done at the same time with a shift of the cultures from 27°C to 37°C. Immunoblotting was performed using peroxidase-antiperoxidase complexes (Sigma) and the Immobilon Western (Millipore) chemiluminescence kit. Images were obtained with a cooled digital camera (GeneGnome; Syngene) and quantitated using ImageJ (version 1.38a; W. S. Rasband, U.S. National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD [http://rsb.info.nih.gov/ij/]).
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FIG. 1. Mak11 depletion in yeast cells leads to a block in 27SB-to-7S conversion. A. Simplified drawing of different steps in rRNA maturation with the position of the oligonucleotides used for Northern blotting or primer extensions. (B to D) The amounts of large pre-rRNA and rRNA were estimated by Northern blotting (1% agarose gel with glyoxal denaturation) (B), by primer extension (C), or by Northern blotting after separation on denaturant urea-polyacrylamide (5%) gels (D). Equal amounts of total RNA were extracted at the indicated time points after addition of doxycycline from cells where endogenous MAK11 was deleted and where plasmidic TAP-MAK11 was under the control of a tetracycline-repressible promoter (strain LMA326). Oligonucleotides used to reveal the different RNAs are indicated in parentheses.
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To perform additional functional studies, we searched for variants of Mak11 that, while supporting growth in yeast cells, were responsible for a thermosensitive phenotype. By mutagenic PCR coupled with plasmid gap repair, we obtained several alleles of mak11 that complemented the deletion of the gene at 25°C but supported only very slow growth at 37°C. The mak11-2 strain began to grow noticeably slower than a wild-type strain at 4 h after a shift of temperature from 25 to 37°C (Fig. 2A). The observed growth defect was associated with an increase in the G1 cell cycle phase length as determined by FACS analysis (Fig. 2B). Such a G1 cell cycle delay when ribosome biogenesis was impaired could be seen when other pre-60S factors like Nog1 were depleted (not shown) and was previously reported for small-subunit processome factor depletions (3). Total RNA extracted from the wild-type and mak11-2 strains after 4 and 12 h of growth at 37°C showed a decreased amount of the 25S rRNA compared with the 18S rRNA (Fig. 2C), in agreement with a role of MAK11 in 60S ribosomal subunit formation.
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FIG. 2. The mak11-2 ts mutant shows alterations in 25S synthesis, cell cycle, and preribosome export. (A) Growth curves at 37°C for the mak11-2 mutant (open circles) compared with a wild-type strain (crosses). The number of cells was estimated using the absorbance of the culture at 600 nm. (B) The cell cycle distribution of yeast cells was estimated by FACS analysis. Wild-type and mak11-2 haploid cells in rich medium were shifted from 27°C to 37°C for 0, 1, 3, and 6 h; aliquots were fixed with 70% ethanol and stained with propidium iodide. The ratios of cells having 1n DNA content to those having 2n DNA content were estimated in triplicate experiments (wild-type strain, white bars; mak11-2 strain, gray bars); error bars are standard deviations of the measured ratios. (C) Total RNA was extracted from a wild-type strain or the mak11-2 strain at time zero and 4 and 12 h after shift to the nonpermissive temperature, separated on a 1% agarose gel (glyoxal denaturation), and stained with ethidium bromide. (D) GFP fluorescence of the mak11-2 ts or isogenic wild-type cells, each type expressing Rpl25-eGFP, was detected after a shift to 37°C for 8 h. DNA was stained with Hoechst 33342. Arrowheads indicate the relative positions of the DNA-stained regions of the nuclei. wt, wild type.
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As predicted from our previous work, Mak11 acts thus early after the formation of the 60S precursors in the nucleolus. For a mechanistic analysis of Mak11 action we first defined the composition of preribosomal complexes that contained Mak11.
Complexes associated with Mak11 do not contain late preribosomal factors.
Mak11 was found associated with pre-60S complexes purified in association with Rlp24, and its levels increased in these particles when another pre-60S factor, Nog1, was depleted (47). To place Mak11 on the 60S assembly pathway, we purified the associated complexes and identified the proteins by mass spectrometry. Addition of the TAP tag (44) to Mak11 as an N-terminal (strain LMA326) or C-terminal (strain LMA375) fusion had no deleterious effects on Mak11 function since both versions supported growth to wild-type levels (not shown). Forty known and putative pre-60S factors, other than ribosomal proteins, were identified by mass spectrometry from TAPs using chromosomal C-terminal tagged Mak11 (Fig. 3A, second lane from left) as well as from TAPs using N-terminal tagged Mak11 expressed from a plasmid in a
mak11 strain (Table 2). Notable absences in the list of the identified proteins are Arx1, Nog2, Nug1, and Nsa2, known to associate late in the nucleus with the preribosomes (30, 38, 46). We verified by immunoblotting with specific antibodies that Arx1, Nog2, and Nsa2 were present in complexes purified using Rlp24-TAP but absent when the complexes were purified using Mak11-TAP (Fig. 3B). The reverse experiment confirmed these results; neither Nog2-TAP nor Arx1-TAP was able to copurify Mak11 (Fig. 3C).
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FIG. 3. Mak11-associated complexes do not contain late pre-60S factors. (A) Proteins purified in association with Mak11-TAP from wild-type (wt) cells or cells depleted for Rlp24 or Nog1 (14 h in glucose medium) were separated on a 5 to 20% polyacrylamide gradient gel and stained with colloidal Coomassie blue. Proteins identified by matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization-time of flight mass spectrometry, listed in Table 2, are indicated. (B) The presence or absence of proteins in TEV eluates from purifications using Mak11-TAP and Rlp24-TAP was determined by immunoblotting with specific antibodies. (C) The presence of Mak11 in complexes purified using Rlp24-TAP, Nog2-TAP, and Arx1-TAP was tested by immunoblotting, with Nog1 as a positive control. (D and E) RNAs associated with Mak11 complexes were enriched in the TEV protease eluate from a TAP-Mak11 (LMA326) purification. The recovered RNAs were extracted with phenol-chloroform and tested by primer extension (D) or Northern blotting (E) with the same oligonucleotides as those used for Fig. 1.
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TABLE 2. Nonribosomal proteins identified in complexes purified in association with TAP-Mak11 (N) and Mak11-TAP (C)
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Altogether, these results revealed Mak11's association with 27SB pre-rRNA in nucleolar complexes and its requirement for an essential maturation step of 27SB containing pre-60S particles. Mak11 seems to bind only transiently to nuclear 60S precursors, as it leaves these particles before the association of late pre-60S factors such as Nog2, Nsa2, or Arx1.
Mak11 is both associated with pre-60S particles and in a free form. We observed that the amount of proteins purified in association with Mak11 was strongly decreased when the purification was performed in a strain depleted for Rlp24 and was increased when the purification was done after Nog1 depletion (Fig. 3A). To better understand what changed under these conditions, we separated total protein extracts from a wild-type strain or strains depleted for Rlp24 or Nog1, by ultracentrifugation on sucrose gradients. Mak11-TAP was detected in the different fractions by immunoblotting (Fig. 4). Surprisingly, even in a wild-type strain, the Mak11 sedimentation profile showed two peaks, a major one in fractions sedimenting in the upper part of the gradient and a minor one around the position of the 60S preribosomal particles (Fig. 4A). The ratio between these two fractions changed in opposite directions when either Rlp24 or Nog1 was depleted. Most of Mak11 was found in the smaller complexes, under conditions of low Rlp24 levels (Fig. 4B), whereas Mak11 was abundant in the pre-60S fractions when Nog1 was limiting for ribosome biogenesis (Fig. 4C). These changes were correlated with the small amount of preribosomal proteins purified with Mak11-TAP when Rlp24 was depleted while preribosomal proteins accumulated in the complexes associated with Mak11 under Nog1 depletion. In addition, our previous observation of Mak11 accumulating in Rlp24-TAP complexes under Nog1 depletion indicated that pre-60S complexes containing Mak11 were accumulating (47).
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FIG. 4. Dynamic association of Mak11 with pre-60S particles. Sucrose gradient ultracentrifugation analysis of Mak11-TAP in wild-type (wt) cells (A) and cells depleted for Rlp24 (B) or Nog1 (C) was followed by protein precipitation from the recovered fractions and immunoblotting to detect the TAP tag.
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Mak11 seems to have a dynamic distribution between a free form and the pre-60S form, depending on the levels of different pre-60S intermediates. The free form might represent a "storage" of protein, readily available for variable 60S biogenesis demands.
Rlp24 cooperates with Mak11 for 60S ribosomal particle assembly. To obtain further hints about Mak11 function, we performed a high-copy-number suppressor genetic screen with the mak11-2 thermosensitive strain. The large majority of the recovered plasmids (100) contained the MAK11 gene and were able to complement both the thermosensitivity of the test strain and the loss of a wild-type MAK11 plasmid. Nine other isolated plasmids allowed only partial complementation of the thermosensitive phenotype of the mak11-2 strain and contained sequences that had in common the RLP24 genomic region, from 619 upstream of the ATG to 1,074 nucleotides downstream of the stop codon. We further verified the complementation by using a 2µm plasmid derived from pCM190 (14) expressing RLP24 under the control of a doxycycline-repressible promoter. Only the pCM190-RLP24 plasmid could complement the mak11-2 ts phenotype, while the complementation failed if the expression of RLP24 was repressed (Fig. 5A).
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FIG. 5. Mak11 and Rlp24 are functionally and physically linked. (A) RLP24 is a high-copy-number suppressor of the mak11-2 ts phenotype. Rlp24 was expressed from a high-copy-number vector (pCM190-RLP24) under the control of a tetracycline-repressible promoter in wild-type or mak11-2 cells at permissive and nonpermissive temperatures. Growth was estimated by 10-fold serial dilutions on solid yeast extract-peptone-dextrose medium with or without doxycycline. (B) Protein-protein interaction between (His)6-Mak11 and GST-Rlp24 was detected by mixing total extracts of E. coli overexpressing the proteins and pulling down the GST fusion proteins with glutathione-Sepharose. Eluates were separated on 4 to 12% Novex polyacrylamide gels and Coomassie blue stained. Immunoblot assays were performed in parallel with rabbit polyclonal antibodies raised against Mak11. Asterisks indicate GST-tagged proteins. Rpl3 and Rpl5 were used as controls.
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A direct interaction between Mak11 and Rlp24 and the decrease of the amount of Mak11-associated preribosomal proteins when Rlp24 was depleted (Fig. 3A) suggested a possible role for Mak11 in Rlp24 association with pre-60S complexes. The amount of proteins purified in association with Rlp24 decreased dramatically during Mak11 depletion (not shown). The absence of a complex under these conditions was explained by a decrease in the total amount of the tagged Rlp24 (Fig. 6A). No change was observed when another tagged protein, Ssf1, was used in a similar experiment, and only a slight decrease in total protein concentration was observed with Nog1-TAP (Fig. 6B and C). No change was observed in the levels of the mRNA for Rlp24 when tested by reverse transcription and quantitative real-time PCR (not shown). These results strongly suggest that Mak11 is required at an early 60S assembly step either for Rlp24 association with precursor complexes or for the stability of these particles.
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FIG. 6. Mak11 stabilizes Rlp24. (A to C) Strains expressing Rlp24-TAP (A), Ssf1-TAP (B), and Nog1-TAP (C) with MAK11 under the control of a GAL1 promoter were grown on rich galactose medium and shifted to glucose for 8 and 18 h. The amounts of the tagged proteins were estimated by immunoblotting for the TAP tag; the total amounts of loaded proteins on each lane were estimated by Ponceau S staining of the nitrocellulose membranes. (D) Strains expressing Rlp24-TAP and either the mak11-2 allele or wild-type MAK11 were grown on yeast extract-peptone-dextrose at 27°C and shifted to 37°C for up to 6 h. The amount of Rlp24-TAP was estimated by immunoblotting (upper panel), and the amount of loaded total protein was visualized by Ponceau red staining (lower panel). (E) The stability of Rlp24-TAP in the mak11-2 (open circles) and wild-type (crosses) strains was measured by simultaneously shifting the culture from 27°C to 37°C and adding 35 µg/ml cycloheximide. The immunoblot signal was plotted as a ratio to the initial Rlp24-TAP amount. The inset shows a typical image used for quantification. The standard deviations of the results for three independent cultures are indicated as error bars.
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RLP24 overexpression complemented the phenotype of the mak11-2 strain, probably via a direct protein-protein interaction, and Rlp24 was destabilized in the absence of Mak11. These data strongly suggest that the essential function of MAK11 in S. cerevisiae is directly linked to 60S ribosomal subunit formation. Since another function has been described for putative orthologues of MAK11 in other organisms, we wondered whether these proteins were involved in the large subunit biogenesis in these organisms.
Skb15, the fission yeast Mak11 homologue, is involved in 60S ribosomal subunit biogenesis. Mak11 fission yeast (Skb15) and human (hPip1) homologues were previously described as components of a mitogen-activated protein kinase signaling pathway, which delivers signals from the cell surface to different effectors (27, 63). Multiple alignments of the sequences for the human, fission yeast, and budding yeast proteins indicated a moderate level of similarity, with about 17% identity between any two aligned sequences (Fig. 7). Reciprocal BLAST searches against entire proteome sequences identified putative orthologues of Mak11 in many eukaryotes.
We wondered whether the fission yeast or the human protein complemented the lethal phenotype of S. cerevisiae cells deleted for MAK11. To test this hypothesis, we cloned the sequences coding for Mak11, Skb15, and hPip1 in vectors that would allow the expression of N-terminal protein A fusions in budding yeast. After transformation of the diploid heterozygote strain containing the deletion of MAK11, sporulation of the diploids was induced and the tetrads were dissected. Only the vectors bearing the MAK11 sequence were able to complement the absence of MAK11 (not shown). Either the sequence divergence is too important to allow functional complementation of MAK11 deletion by Skb15 or hPip1, or the Mak11 function in budding yeast is different from the Skb15 or hPip1 function in fission yeast or human cells.
Since we could not directly demonstrate the functional conservation of the Mak11 putative homologue Skb15 in budding yeast, we looked for potential implication of Skb15 in ribosome biogenesis in S. pombe. We took advantage of a previously described fission yeast strain where the expression of SKB15 is under the control of a repressible promoter (27) to assess 60S ribosomal subunit defects when Skb15 was depleted. We compared the polysome profile of extracts from the cells depleted for Skb15 with that of a corresponding wild-type strain. As expected for a Mak11 orthologue, depletion of Skb15 led to a polysome profile typical for 60S ribosomal subunit biogenesis defects with a large peak of free 40S, a decrease in the amount of free 60S, and a drastic decrease in the polysome levels (Fig. 8A and B). Skb15 is thus functionally linked to ribosome biogenesis in S. pombe.
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FIG. 8. The Mak11 homologue in S. pombe, Skb15, is involved in 60S formation in fission yeast. (A and B) Cells expressing SKB15 under the control of the nmt1 thiamine-repressible promoter were grown in synthetic medium without thiamine (A) or with 5 µg/ml thiamine (B). Extracts were separated by sucrose gradient ultracentrifugation, and the amounts of free 40S, free 60S, and polysomes were estimated by the 254-nm absorbance profile. (C) A wild-type S. pombe strain and a strain expressing Skb15-TAP were used for the first step of TAP; RNAs were extracted with phenol-chloroform and tested by Northern blotting or primer extension with oligonucleotides specific for pre-rRNAs or U2 as control.
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There are more than 100 WD40 repeat proteins in yeast as listed by the Superfam database (34). Almost one-fifth of these proteins (22 out of 111) are factors annotated as being involved in ribosome biogenesis and assemblya significant enrichment of this pathway (P < 4 x 1011) over a random selection (GO Termfinder [4]). Many of the annotated ribosome biogenesis WD40 repeat proteins were shown to directly interact with, or regulate the levels of, other proteins (25) or to be components of multiprotein subcomplexes. A profusion of WD40 repeat proteins is found in discrete 80S processome subcomplexes. Four out of seven components of the tUTP complex (13) contain WD40 repeat proteins, and the UTP "B" complex (9, 29) is composed almost exclusively of WD40 repeat proteins (five of six proteins). One of the first pre-60S subcomplexes to be isolated contains two WD40 repeat proteins, Ytm1 and Erb1, in association with Nop7 (19, 29, 35). Another subcomplex, transiently associated with late, nuclear pre-60S precursors, is composed of four proteins and contains Ipi3 as a WD40 repeat member (29, 39).
Two examples of WD40 repeat ribosome biogenesis factors interacting directly with ribosomal proteins for 60S ribosomal subunit assembly are known. Rrb1 interacts with the ribosomal protein Rpl3 in the nucleus and regulates its levels (25, 48), and Sqt1 interacts with Rpl10 in the cytoplasm (11, 59). Both these proteins have a role in the association of the corresponding ribosomal protein with the nascent 60S ribosomal subunits and might regulate the levels of the corresponding ribosomal protein.
Only one ribosomal protein of the Rpl24e family exists in archaea, and its sequence is closer to the sequence of the preribosomal factor Rlp24 than to the sequence of the yeast ribosomal protein Rpl24 (discussed in reference 47). Yeast Rlp24 is essential to ribosome assembly, does not participate in translation, and thus may be considered an "assembly-only" version of a ribosomal protein. While it is assumed that most of the ribosomal proteins associate early with the precursors of the rRNA during ribosome formation, little is known about the timing and potential roles of preribosomal factors in coordinating this assembly process.
Our description of Mak11 as directly interacting with Rlp24 thus fits a pattern established by Sqt1 and Rrb1, factors that contain WD40 repeats and function as partners of ribosomal proteins. Both Sqt1 and Rrb1 were shown to exist mainly as free proteins or small complexes as demonstrated by their sedimentation on sucrose gradients (11, 48). However, the dynamics of the sedimentation pattern for these proteins under mutant conditions have not been evaluated in these previous studies. We show here that Mak11 is present in the cell both free and in association with pre-60S particles. This association is dynamic, and the relative ratios of the two forms vary under mutant conditions. An increase in the amount of the pre-60S-associated Mak11 was observed when Nog1 was depleted, in correlation with the change in Mak11 sedimentation pattern and the increase of the 60S-associated fraction. A similar effect was observed for the amount of Sqt1 copurified with preribosomal particles isolated in association with the cytoplasmic GTPase Lsg1. Blocked particles, containing a dominant-negative form of Lsg1, contained higher amounts of Sqt1 and Rpl10 than particles derived from wild-type cells (59).
In conclusion, the WD40 repeat structure is used by several proteins for binding specifically to ribosomal proteins during ribosome assembly. It would be interesting to test other preribosomal factors having WD40 repeats for direct physical and functional interactions with ribosomal proteins. It would be important to see whether transient and possibly regulated interactions between specific preribosomal factors and ribosomal proteins might play a role in the timing of ribosomal protein association with nascent ribosomes.
Functional conservation of Mak11 in eukaryotic ribosome biogenesis. The sequence of Mak11 shows low levels of similarity with sequences of putative orthologues from other eukaryotes. Experiments with Skb15, the Mak11 homologue in S. pombe, allowed us to show that Skb15 associates with precursors of the 60S ribosomal subunits in fission yeast and that depletion of the protein leads to a decrease in free 60S levels. It is thus likely that the putative orthologues of Mak11 are involved in ribosome biogenesis in other eukaryotes as well. Our additional unpublished results suggest that even if SKB15 cannot complement MAK11 deletion, the protein and its mammalian homologues have features similar to those of Mak11. (i) Skb15, when expressed in S. cerevisiae, localized to the nucleus of budding yeast cells with a stronger signal in the nucleolus. With the use of a high-copy-number plasmid and a strong promoter, the signal for the human Mak11 homologue hPip1 was also detectable in the nucleus of yeast cells, including the nucleolus. The localization of Skb15 in fission yeast was previously described, and the published images of the GFP fusion protein localization (26) suggest the presence of the protein in the nucleolus of S. pombe cells. Moreover, hPip1 has been identified in highly purified nucleolar fractions of human cells (49). (ii) Total extracts of S. cerevisiae cells expressing tagged Skb15 were fractionated by sucrose gradient ultracentrifugation. While the tag alone was found exclusively in the upper part of the gradient, tagged Skb15 could also be detected in fractions around 60Sconsistent with a weak but significant association of the protein with preribosomal particles (not shown). Skb15 thus contains a nuclear localization signal functional in S. cerevisiae and associates weakly with 60S size particles in budding yeast. (iii) In response to various environmental stresses, the changes in SKB15 mRNA levels are similar to the changes in the levels of mRNAs coding for factors predicted to be involved in ribosome biogenesis and assembly in S. pombe (7).
Both Skb15 and hPip1 have been previously described as PAK inhibitors (27, 63). Skb15 was identified by a two-hybrid screen performed using a truncated form of a PAK, Shk1. SKB15 deletion in S. pombe is lethal. Depletion of Skb15 led to cells with altered morphology and to an increase in the activity of protein kinase Shk1, estimated by the level of Shk1 autophosphorylation. Interestingly, expression of a mouse Skb15 homologue was able to complement the deletion of SKB15, indicating functional conservation between fission yeast and mammals (27).
While in vitro experiments were performed with the human Skb15 homologue hPip1 showing that hPip1 could inhibit the activity of human PAK1, no such experiments were reported for Skb15. We tried to reproduce these results with the S. cerevisiae pair of proteins. It has been previously shown that STE20 is functionally equivalent with human PAK1 since its deletion in yeast is complemented by the expression of human PAK1 (6). We tested in vitro the effect of adding purified Mak11 on the protein kinase activity of isolated Ste20 using myelin basic protein as a substrate. Ste20 activity was not affected by added purified Mak11, but we could observe that Mak11 itself was efficiently phosphorylated by Ste20 during these assays (not shown).
A simple hypothesis for the differences between our results and the published studies of Mak11 homologues is that these homologues acquired secondary functions in other eukaryotes, such as protein kinase inhibition. An alternative explanation is that Mak11 homologues function in 60S ribosome formation, as demonstrated here. The stimulation of Shk1 protein kinase activity by Skb15 depletion might thus be a secondary effect of decreasing 60S ribosomal subunit levels. This is an appealing hypothesis since it would suggest that the activation or inhibition of protein kinases might be important in the adaptation of cells to reduced ribosome biogenesis levels.
This work was supported by the Ministère délégué à l'Enseignement Supérieur et à la Recherche (ACI-BCM0089-2003).
Published ahead of print on 16 February 2007. ![]()
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