Nutritional restrictions such as calorie restrictions are known to increase the lifespan of various organisms. Here, we found that a restriction of sulfur extended the chronological lifespan (CLS) of the fission yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe. The restriction decreased cellular size, RNA content, and ribosomal proteins and increased sporulation rate. These responses depended on Ecl1 family genes, the overexpression of which results in the extension of CLS. We also showed that the Zip1 transcription factor results in the sulfur restriction-dependent expression of the ecl1 gene. We demonstrated that a decrease in ribosomal activity results in the extension of CLS. Based on these observations, we propose that sulfur restriction extends CLS through Ecl1 family genes in a ribosomal activity-dependent manner.
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The fission yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe is a model organism of unicellular eukaryotes (Hayles and Nurse, 2018). This yeast is considered to have diverged from the budding yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae hundreds of million years ago (Hayles and Nurse, 2018;Hedges, 2002;Sipiczki, 2000), and studies using these yeast species have contributed significantly to the understanding of various cellular processes. S. pombe has been actively used for research in multiple fields, including cell cycle studies, cellular morphology, sexual development, splicing, and chromosome structure. Furthermore, much information is accumulating regarding the stationary phase of cells,
In Schizosaccharomyces pombe, ecl family genes are induced by several signals, such as starvation of various nutrients, including sulfur, amino acids, and magnesium, and environmental stress, including heat or oxidative stress. These genes mediate appropriate cellular responses and contribute to the maintenance of cell viability and induction of sexual differentiation. Although this yeast has three ecl family genes with overlapping functions, any environmental conditions that induce ecl3+ remain unidentified. We demonstrate that ecl3+ is induced by phosphate starvation, similar to its chromosomally neighboring genes, pho1+ and pho84+, which respectively encode an extracellular acid phosphatase and an inorganic phosphate transporter. ecl3+ expression was induced by the transcription factor Pho7 and affected by the cyclin-dependent kinase (CDK)-activating kinase Csk1. Phosphate starvation induced G1 arrest and sexual differentiation via ecl family genes. Biochemical analyses suggested that this G1 arrest was mediated by the stabilization of the CDK inhibitor Rum1, which was dependent on ecl family genes. This study shows that ecl family genes are required for appropriate responses to phosphate starvation and provides novel insights into the diversity and similarity of starvation responses.
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