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 ...
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