Salt shock enhances the expression of ZrATP2, the gene for the mitochondrial ATPase beta subunit of Zygosaccharomyces rouxii.

In the course of a study of cell wall proteins from the salt-tolerant yeast Zygosaccharomyces rouxii, a protein that increased its expression as the NaCl concentration of the culture medium increased was identified. Several degenerate primers were constructed based on partial amino acid sequences of this protein and were used in PCR amplification of a gene termed ZrATP2. The amino acid sequence deduced from nucleotide sequence of the gene revealed that ZrATP2 encodes the beta subunit of mitochondrial F1 ATPase. Northern blot analysis demonstrated that NaCl shock induced an elevation in ZrATP2 expression, which corresponded with the resumption of Z. rouxii cell growth after salt shock.