Background: Zinc is required as a structural cofactor for the folding of many proteins. Results: The chaperone activity of the Tsa1 peroxiredoxin is essential for protein homeostasis and growth of zinc-deficient yeast. Conclusion: Zinc limitation disrupts protein homeostasis, and cells need Tsa1 for tolerance. Significance: Disrupted protein homeostasis is a major and previously unrecognized stress of zinc deficiency.

Zinc is an essential cofactor for many proteins. A key mechanism of zinc homeostasis during deficiency is “zinc sparing” in which specific zinc-binding proteins are repressed to reduce the cellular requirement. In this report, we evaluated zinc sparing across the zinc proteome of Saccharomyces cerevisiae. The yeast zinc proteome of 582 known or potential zinc-binding proteins was identified using a bioinformatics analysis that combined global domain searches with local motif searches. Protein abundance was determined by mass spectrometry. In zinc-replete cells, we detected over 2500 proteins among which 229 were zinc proteins. Based on copy number estimates and binding stoichiometries, a replete cell contains ~9 million zinc-binding sites on proteins. During zinc deficiency, many zinc proteins decreased in abundance and the zinc-binding requirement decreased to ~5 million zinc atoms per cell. Many of these effects were due at least in part to changes in mRNA levels rather than simply protein degradation. Measurements of cellular zinc content showed that the level of zinc atoms per cell dropped from over 20 million in replete cells to only 1.7 million in deficient cells. These results confirmed the ability of replete cells to store excess zinc and suggested that the majority of zinc-binding sites on proteins in deficient cells are either unmetalated or mismetalated. Our analysis of two abundant zinc proteins, Fba1 aldolase and Met6 methionine synthetase, supported that hypothesis. Thus, we have discovered widespread zinc sparing mechanisms and obtained evidence of a high accumulation of zinc proteins that lack their cofactor during deficiency.

Stability of many proteins requires zinc. Zinc deficiency disrupts their folding, and the ubiquitin-proteasome system may help manage this stress. In Saccharomyces cerevisiae, UBI4 encodes five tandem ubiquitin monomers and is essential for growth in zinc-deficient conditions. Although UBI4 is only one of four ubiquitin-encoding genes in the genome, a dramatic decrease in ubiquitin was observed in zinc-deficient ubi4⌬ cells. The three other ubiquitin genes were strongly repressed under these conditions, contributing to the decline in ubiquitin. In a screen for ubi4⌬ suppressors, a hypomorphic allele of the RPT2 proteasome regulatory subunit gene (rpt2 E301K ) suppressed the ubi4⌬ growth defect. The rpt2 E301K mutation also increased ubiquitin accumulation in zinc-deficient cells, and by using a ubiquitin-independent proteasome substrate we found that proteasome activity was reduced. These results suggested that increased ubiquitin supply in suppressed ubi4⌬ cells was a consequence of more efficient ubiquitin release and recycling during proteasome degradation. Degradation of a ubiquitin-dependent substrate was restored by the rpt2 E301K mutation, indicating that ubiquitination is rate-limiting in this process. The UBI4 gene was induced ϳ5-fold in low zinc and is regulated by the zinc-responsive Zap1 transcription factor. Surprisingly, Zap1 controls UBI4 by inducing transcription from an intragenic promoter, and the resulting truncated mRNA encodes only two of the five ubiquitin repeats. Expression of a short transcript alone complemented the ubi4⌬ mutation, indicating that it is efficiently translated. Loss of Zap1-dependent UBI4 expression caused a growth defect in zinc-deficient conditions. Thus, the intragenic UBI4 promoter is critical to preventing ubiquitin deficiency in zinc-deficient cells.Zinc is an essential element with diverse roles in biology. Unlike transition metals, such as iron and copper, zinc ions (Zn 2ϩ ) are not redox-active under physiological conditions and do not play a direct role in redox reactions. Zn 2ϩ strongly interacts with ligands, such as cysteine, histidine, and acidic amino acids in proteins (1). When bound by three or fewer ligands, Zn 2ϩ can act as a Lewis acid to facilitate catalysis by diverse classes of enzymes, including oxidoreductases, transferases, and hydrolases (2). In contrast, binding of Zn 2ϩ by four ligands produces a relatively inert, structurally rigid tetrahedral complex, which provides stability to many classes of protein domains (1-3). Because of its catalytic and structural roles, Zn 2ϩ has been estimated to be required for the folding and function of ϳ10% of proteins encoded by eukaryotic genomes and ϳ5% of proteins in prokaryotes (4, 5). One abundant example is the enzyme alcohol dehydrogenase, which contains two Zn 2ϩ atoms per subunit, one serving in catalysis and the other playing a structural role (1, 6, 7). Consistent with the importance of zinc to Adh 2 folding, mutants of Adh lacking structural zinc site ligands are unstable and quickly degraded in ...

The Msc2 and Zrg17 proteins of Saccharomyces cerevisiae form a complex to transport zinc into the endoplasmic reticulum. ZRG17 is transcriptionally induced in zinc-limited cells by the Zap1 transcription factor. In this report, we show that MSC2 mRNA also increases (~1.5 fold) in zinc-limited cells. The MSC2 gene has two in-frame ATG codons at its 5’ end, ATG1 and ATG2; ATG2 is the predicted initiation codon. When the MSC2 promoter was fused at ATG2 to the lacZ gene, we found that unlike the chromosomal gene this reporter showed a 4-fold decrease in lacZ mRNA in zinc-limited cells. Surprisingly, β-galactosidase activity generated by this fusion gene increased ~7 fold during zinc deficiency suggesting the influence of post-transcriptional factors. Transcription of MSC2ATG2-lacZ was found to start upstream of ATG1 in zinc-replete cells. In zinc-limited cells, transcription initiation shifted to sites just upstream of ATG2. From the results of mutational and polysome profile analyses, we propose the following explanation for these effects. In zinc-replete cells, MSC2ATG2-lacZ mRNA with long 5’ UTRs fold into secondary structures that inhibit translation. In zinc-limited cells, transcripts with shorter unstructured 5’ UTRs are generated that are more efficiently translated. Surprisingly, chromosomal MSC2 did not show start site shifts in response to zinc status and only shorter 5’ UTRs were observed. However, the shifts that occur in the MSC2ATG2-lacZ construct led us to identify significant transcription start site changes affecting the expression of ~3% of all genes. Therefore, zinc status can profoundly alter transcription initiation across the yeast genome.

Summary Maintaining zinc homeostasis is an important property of all organisms. In the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae, the Zap1 transcriptional activator is a central player in this process. In response to zinc deficiency, Zap1 activates transcription of many genes and consequently increases accumulation of their encoded proteins. In this report, we describe a new mechanism of Zap1-mediated regulation whereby increased transcription of certain target genes results in reduced protein expression. Transcription of the Zap1-responsive genes RTC4 and RAD27 increases markedly in zinc-deficient cells but, surprisingly, their protein levels decrease. We examined the underlying mechanism further for RTC4 and found that this unusual regulation results from altered transcription start site selection. In zinc-replete cells, RTC4 transcription begins near the protein-coding region and the resulting short transcript leader allows for efficient translation. In zinc-deficient cells, RTC4 RNA with longer transcript leaders are expressed that are not efficiently translated due to the presence of multiple small open reading frames upstream of the coding region. This regulation requires a potential Zap1 binding site located farther upstream of the promoter. Thus, we present evidence for a new mechanism of Zap1-mediated gene regulation and another way that this activator protein can repress protein expression.

1The Zap1 transcription factor of Saccharomyces cerevisiae is a key regulator in the genomic 2 responses to zinc deficiency. Among the genes regulated by Zap1 during zinc deficiency is the 3 autophagy-related gene ATG41. Here, we report that Atg41 is required for growth in zinc-4 deficient conditions but not when zinc is abundant or when other metals are limiting. 5Consistent with a role for Atg41 in macroautophagy, we show that nutritional zinc deficiency 6 induces autophagy and that mutation of ATG41 diminishes that response. Several experiments 7 indicated that the importance of ATG41 function to growth during zinc deficiency is not 8 because of its role in macroautophagy but rather is due to one or more autophagy-independent 9 functions. For example, rapamycin treatment fully induced autophagy in zinc-deficient atg41Δ 10 mutants but failed to improve growth. In addition, atg41Δ mutants showed a far more severe 11 growth defect than any of several other autophagy mutants tested, and atg41Δ mutants 12 showed increased Hsf1 activity, an indicator of protein homeostasis stress, while other 13 autophagy mutants did not. An autophagy-independent function for ATG41 in sulfur 14 metabolism during zinc deficiency was suggested by analyzing the transcriptome of atg41Δ 15 mutants during the transition from zinc-replete to deficient conditions. Analysis of sulfur 16 metabolites confirmed that Atg41 is needed for the normal accumulation of methionine, 17 homocysteine, and cysteine in zinc-deficient cells. Therefore, we conclude that Atg41 plays 18 roles in both macroautophagy and sulfur metabolism during zinc deficiency. 19 20 4

Changes in RNA are often poor predictors of protein accumulation. One factor disrupting this relationship are changes in transcription start sites (TSSs). Therefore, we explored how alterations in TSS affected expression of genes regulated by the Zap1 transcriptional activator of Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Zap1 controls their response to zinc deficiency. Among over 80 known Zap1-regulated genes, several produced long leader transcripts (LLTs) in one zinc status condition and short leader transcripts (SLTs) in the other. Fusing LLT and SLT transcript leaders to green fluorescent protein indicated that for five genes, the start site shift likely has little effect on protein synthesis.For four genes, however, the different transcript leaders greatly affected translation.We focused on the HNT1 gene. Zap1 caused a shift from SLT HNT1 RNA in zinc-replete cells to LLT HNT1 RNA in deficient cells. This shift correlated with decreased protein production despite increased RNA. The LLT RNA contains multiple upstream open reading frames that can inhibit translation. Expression of the LLT HNT1 RNA was dependent on Zap1. However, expression of the long transcript was not required to decrease SLT HNT1 mRNA. Our results suggest that the Zap1-activated LLT RNA is a "fail-safe" mechanism to ensure decreased Hnt1 protein in zinc deficiency. K E Y W O R D Spromoter regions, regulation, RNA, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, transcription factors, transcription start site, zinc

Zinc homeostasis is essential for all organisms. The Zap1 transcriptional activator regulates these processes in the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae. During zinc deficiency, Zap1 increases expression of zinc transporters and proteins involved in adapting to the stress of zinc deficiency. Transcriptional activation by Zap1 can also repress expression of some genes, e.g., RTC4. In zinc-replete cells, RTC4 mRNA is produced with a short transcript leader that is efficiently translated. During deficiency, Zap1-dependent expression of an RNA with a longer transcript leader represses the RTC4 promoter. This long leader transcript (LLT) is not translated due to the presence of small open reading frames upstream of the RTC4 coding region. In this study, we show that the RTC4 LLT RNA also plays a second function, i.e., repression of the adjacent GIS2 gene. In generating the LLT transcript, RNA polymerase II transcribes RTC4 through the GIS2 promoter. Production of the LLT RNA correlates with the decreased expression of GIS2 mRNA and mutations that prevent synthesis of the LLT RNA or terminate it before the GIS2 promoter renders GIS2 mRNA expression and Gis2 protein accumulation constitutive. Thus, we have discovered an unusual regulatory mechanism that uses a bicistronic RNA to control two genes simultaneously.