Sublinear scaling of the cellular proteome with ploidy.

Ploidy changes are frequent in nature and contribute to evolution, functional specialization and tumorigenesis. Analysis of model organisms of different ploidies revealed that increased ploidy leads to an increase in cell and nuclear volume, reduced proliferation, metabolic changes, lower fitness, and increased genomic instability, but the underlying mechanisms remain poorly understood. To investigate how gene expression changes with cellular ploidy, we analyzed isogenic series of budding yeasts from 1N to 4N. We show that mRNA and protein abundance scales allometrically with ploidy, with tetraploid cells showing only threefold increase in protein abundance compared to haploids. This ploidy-dependent sublinear scaling occurs via decreased rRNA and ribosomal protein abundance and reduced translation. We demonstrate that the activity of Tor1 is reduced with increasing ploidy, which leads to diminished rRNA gene repression via a Tor1-Sch9-Tup1 signaling pathway. mTORC1 and S6K activity are also reduced in human tetraploid cells and the concomitant increase of the Tup1 homolog Tle1 downregulates the rDNA transcription. Our results suggest that the mTORC1-Sch9/S6K-Tup1/TLE1 pathway ensures proteome remodeling in response to increased ploidy.

Dissection of the functions of the Saccharomyces cerevisiae RAD6 postreplicative repair group in mutagenesis and UV sensitivity.

The RAD6 postreplicative repair group participates in various processes of DNA metabolism. To elucidate the contribution of RAD6 to starvation-associated mutagenesis, which occurs in nongrowing cells cultivated under selective conditions, we analyzed the phenotype of strains expressing various alleles of the RAD6 gene and single and multiple mutants of the RAD6, RAD5, RAD18, REV3, and MMS2 genes from the RAD6 repair group. Our results show that the RAD6 repair pathway is also active in starving cells and its contribution to starvation-associated mutagenesis is similar to that of spontaneous mutagenesis. Epistatic analysis based on both spontaneous and starvation-associated mutagenesis and UV sensitivity showed that the RAD6 repair group consists of distinct repair pathways of different relative importance requiring, besides the presence of Rad6, also either Rad18 or Rad5 or both. We postulate the existence of four pathways: (1) nonmutagenic Rad5/Rad6/Rad18, (2) mutagenic Rad5/Rad6 /Rev3, (3) mutagenic Rad6/Rad18/Rev3, and (4) Rad6/Rad18/Rad30. Furthermore, we show that the high mutation rate observed in rad6 mutants is caused by a mutator different from Rev3. From our data and data previously published, we suggest a role for Rad6 in DNA repair and mutagenesis and propose a model for the RAD6 postreplicative repair group.

Starvation-associated mutagenesis in yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae is affected by Ras2/cAMP signaling pathway.

The number of revertants with restored ability to form colony increases in a time-dependent manner during long-term selective starvation of dense mutant microbial cultures. This is due to starvation-associated (also called adaptive) mutations that arise in a replication independent manner. Here we report that in Saccharomyces cerevisiae the frequency of starvation-associated reversions of mutant genes whose products are necessary for amino acids biosynthesis are influenced by Ras2/cAMP signaling pathway. This signaling pathway is a yeast general regulatory pathway involved in nutritional sensing, UV response, sporulation control and life span control and its changes are manifested in both, cell cycle and life cycle. Inactivation of the RAS2 gene causes an increase in number of starvation-associated revertants in comparison to an isogenic wild type strain and a strain with constitutively activated Ras2/cAMP signaling pathway. Therefore, we suggest that starvation-associated mutagenesis is different from spontaneous mutagenesis and is related to the cellular capacity to adopt distinct physiological states in response to environmental signals.

The involvement of the RAD6 gene in starvation-induced reverse mutation in Saccharomyces cerevisiae.

The accumulation of Ade+ revertants during adenine starvation and Trp+ revertants during tryptophan starvation in haploid polyauxotrophic strains of Saccharomyces cerevisiae occurs in a time-dependent manner. Accumulation of revertants is enhanced in Rad6- strains, suggesting that starvation-induced reversion is influenced by some of the RAD6 gene functions. The higher frequency of adaptive reversions in Rad6- strains is somewhat influenced by, but does not totally depend on, the genetic background. Therefore, the RAD6 gene product is involved in maintaining a low level not only of spontaneous mutation but also of starvation-induced reversion. The starvation-induced Ade+ and Trp+ reversions both appear to be adaptive. The analysis of growth characteristics and the genotype of revertants shows a difference between early and late-appearing revertants. These results support the hypothesis that the adaptivity of starvation-induced reversion is based on the selective fixation of random mutations, and particularly on transcription-enhanced repair and/or mutagenesis processes.

Accumulation of Ade(+) reversions in isoauxotrophic strains ofSaccharomyces cerevisioe allelic inRAD6 during adenine starvation.

A comparative method based on an analysis of accumulation of starvation-induced Ade(+) reversions and cell death during adenine starvation was developed and exploited for estimating the role ofRAD6 in the starvation-induced reversions. It was shown that inactivation ofRAD6 function inSaccharomyces cerevisioe markedly enhances the accumulation of Ade(+) reversions, and therefore it is likely that this gene is taking part in maintaining the low level of starvation-induced mutations in yeast cells.

Accumulation of Ade+ reversions in isoauxotrophic stains of Saccharomyces cerevisiae allelic in RAD6 during adenine starvation.

A comparative method based on an analysis of accumulation of starvation-induced Ade+ reversions and cell death during adenine starvation was developed and exploited for estimating the role of RAD6 in the starvation-induced reversions. It was shown that inactivation of RAD6 function in Saccharomyces cerevisiae markedly enhances the accumulation of Ade+ reversions, and therefore it is likely that this gene is taking part in maintaining the low level of starvation-induced mutations in yeast cells.

Uracilless death and papillae formation in rad6-1 polyauxotrophic strains of Saccharomyces cerevisiae.

Both uracilless death and papillae formation during uracil starvation are markedly more extensive in rad6-1 than in RAD6 strains. Osmotic stabilization with 1 mol/L glucitol improves the growth of rad6-1 polyauxotrophic strains in supplemented minimal medium and partially suppresses both the uracilless death and cannibalistic growth of papillae on colonies.