Yeast cells sense the amount and quality of external nutrients through multiple interconnected signaling networks, which allow them to adjust their metabolism, transcriptional profile and developmental program to adapt readily and appropriately to changing nutritional states. We present our current understanding of the nutritional sensing networks yeast cells rely on for perceiving the nutritional landscape, with particular emphasis on those sensitive to carbon and nitrogen sources. We describe the means by which these networks inform the cell's decision among the different developmental programs available to them-growth, quiescence, filamentous development, or meiosis/sporulation. We conclude that the highly interconnected signaling networks provide the cell with a highly nuanced view of the environment and that the cell can interpret that information through a sophisticated calculus to achieve optimum responses to any nutritional condition.

In the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae, the transcription of many genes encoding enzymes of phospholipid biosynthesis are repressed in cells grown in the presence of the phospholipid precursors inositol and choline. A genome-wide approach using cDNA microarray technology was used to profile the changes in the expression of all genes in yeast that respond to the exogenous presence of inositol and choline. We report that the global response to inositol is completely distinct from the effect of choline. Whereas the effect of inositol on gene expression was primarily repressing, the effect of choline on gene expression was activating. Moreover, the combination of inositol and choline increased the number of repressed genes compared with inositol alone and enhanced the repression levels of a subset of genes that responded to inositol. In all, 110 genes were repressed in the presence of inositol and choline. Two distinct sets of genes exhibited differential expression in response to inositol or the combination of inositol and choline in wild-type cells. One set of genes contained the UAS INO sequence and were bound by Ino2p and Ino4p. Many of these genes were also negatively regulated by OPI1, suggesting a common regulatory mechanism for Ino2p, Ino4p, and Opi1p. Another nonoverlapping set of genes was coregulated by the unfolded protein response pathway, an ER-localized stress response pathway, but was not dependent on OPI1 and did not show further repression when choline was present together with inositol. These results suggest that inositol is the major effector of target gene expression, whereas choline plays a minor role.Phospholipids are the key structural elements of membranebounded organelles and play important roles in signaling and membrane trafficking pathways. Each membrane compartment is composed of a unique set of phospholipids whose biophysical properties contribute to the function of each organelle. Phospholipid metabolism is highly regulated by the cell, ensuring the biogenesis and growth of membranes by coordinating the relative rates of synthesis of individual phospholipids with numerous factors, such as the availability of exogenous supplies of phospholipid precursors, growth stage, and membrane trafficking (1, 2).

To gain a better understanding of salt stress responses in plants, we used a proteomic approach to investigate changes in rice (Oryza sativa) root plasma-membrane-associated proteins following treatment with 150 mmol/L NaCl. With or without a 48 h salt treatment, plasma membrane fractions from root tip cells of a salt-sensitive rice cultivar, Wuyunjing 8, were purified by PEG aqueous two-phase partitioning, and plasma-membrane-associated proteins were separated by IEF/SDS-PAGE using an optimized rehydration buffer. Comparative analysis of three independent biological replicates revealed that the expressions of 18 proteins changed by more than 1.5-fold in response to salt stress. Of these proteins, nine were upregulated and nine were down-regulated. MS analysis indicated that most of these membraneassociated proteins are involved in important physiological processes such as membrane stabilization, ion homeostasis, and signal transduction. In addition, a new leucine-rich-repeat type receptor-like protein kinase, OsRPK1, was identified as a salt-responding protein.Immuno-blots indicated that OsRPK1 is also induced by cold, drought, and abscisic acid. Using immuno-histochemical techniques, we determined that the expression of OsRPK1 was localized in the plasma membrane of cortex cells in roots. The results suggest that different rice cultivars might have different salt stress response mechanisms.

A sandwich electrogenerated chemiluminescence (ECL) biosensor was fabricated based on concanavalin A (Con A)-integrating gold-nanoparticle-modified Ru(bpy)3(2+)-doped silica nanoprobe (Au-RuSiO2 NPs) for in situ and dynamically evaluating cell surface N-glycan expression. Owing to the specific recognition of Con A with mannose and the core trimannoside fragment of N-glycan and the effective ECL amplification of Au-RuSiO2 NPs, the as-proposed biosensor exhibited excellent analytical performance toward the cytosensing of K562 cells with a wide detection linear range from 1.0 × 10(3) to 1.0 × 10(7) cells mL(-1) and a detection limit of 600 cells mL(-1). More importantly, the strategy was successfully applied to evaluate cell surface N-glycan expression under different external stimuli of inhibitors and enzyme. This biosensor is endowed with feasibility and reliability of generating sensitive insight into the majority of N-glycan expression on the cell surface. Furthermore, the biosensor was employed to dynamically profile cell surface N-glycan expression at different phases of cell growth in vitro. This biosensor is promising in studying and elucidating the N-glycan function in biological and physiological processes.

In many organisms the coordinated synthesis of membrane lipids is controlled by feedback systems that regulate the transcription of target genes. However, a complete description of the transcriptional changes that accompany the remodeling of membrane phospholipids has not been reported. To identify metabolic signaling networks that coordinate phospholipid metabolism with gene expression, we profiled the sequential and temporal changes in genome-wide expression that accompany alterations in phospholipid metabolism induced by inositol supplementation in yeast. This analysis identified six distinct expression responses, which included phospholipid biosynthetic genes regulated by Opi1p, endoplasmic reticulum (ER) luminal protein folding chaperone and oxidoreductase genes regulated by the unfolded protein response pathway, lipid-remodeling genes regulated by Mga2p, as well as genes involved in ribosome biogenesis, cytosolic stress response, and purine and amino acid metabolism. We also report that the unfolded protein response pathway is rapidly inactivated by inositol supplementation and demonstrate that the response of the unfolded protein response pathway to inositol is separable from the response mediated by Opi1p. These data indicate that altering phospholipid metabolism produces signals that are relayed through numerous distinct ER-to-nucleus signaling pathways and, thereby, produce an integrated transcriptional response. We propose that these signals are generated in the ER by increased flux through the pathway of phosphatidylinositol synthesis. The endoplasmic reticulum (ER)2 is a dynamic organelle that responds to environmental and developmental cues by regulating the levels of lipids and proteins required for the biogenesis and maintenance of membrane-bound compartments. It is the site of the synthesis and turnover of a major fraction of the lipid components that comprise the entire endomembrane system (1, 2), including phosphatidylinositol (PI), which is the precursor of the essential glycosylphosphatidylinositol lipids, sphingolipids, and phosphoinositides, as well as the soluble inositol polyphosphates (reviewed in Refs. 3-5). A variety of feedbackcontrol systems have been described in animals and fungi that allow cells to monitor and adjust membrane constituents to their proper stoichiometry. For example, the sterol regulatoryelement-binding protein-Scap pathway, which senses sterol levels in the ER, regulates the transcription of genes required for sterol biosynthesis (reviewed in Ref. 6), whereas the unfolded protein response (UPR) pathway, which senses ER secretory stress, regulates the expression of genes that are required for ER homeostasis (reviewed in Ref. 7). However, our understanding of how cells sense the ER membrane environment, then integrate and transmit these signals to the nucleus is incomplete.The model eukaryote, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, adjusts its membrane lipid composition according to the availability of the soluble phospholipid precursors, inositol and choline (8 -13). The additi...

No abstract

Hepatitis B virus (HBV) causes acute and chronic hepatitis and hepatocellular carcinoma. Small interfering RNA (siRNA) and lamivudine have been shown to have anti-HBV effects through different mechanisms. However, assessment of the genome-wide effects of siRNA and lamivudine on HBV-producing cell lines has not been reported, which may provide a clue to interrogate the HBV-cell interaction and to evaluate the siRNA's side effect as a potential drug. In the present study, we designed seven siRNAs based on the conserved HBV sequences and tested their effects on the expression of HBV genes following sorting of siRNA-positive cells. Among these seven siRNAs, siRNA-1 and siRNA-7 were found to effectively suppress HBV gene expression. We further addressed the global gene expression changes in stable HBV-producing cells induced by siRNA-1 and siRNA-7 by use of human genome-wide oligonucleotide microarrays. Data from the gene expression profiling indicated that siRNA-1 and siRNA-7 altered the expression of 54 and 499 genes, respectively, in HepG2.2.15 cells, which revealed that different siRNAs had various patterns of gene expression profiles and suggested a complicated influence of siRNAs on host cells. We further observed that 18 of these genes were suppressed by both siRNA-1 and siRNA-7. Interestingly, seven of these genes were originally activated by HBV, which suggested that these seven genes might be involved in the HBV-host cell interaction. Finally, we have compared the effects of siRNA and lamivudine on HBV and host cells, which revealed that siRNA is more effective at inhibiting HBV expression at the mRNA and protein level in vitro, and the gene expression profile of HepG2.2.15 cells treated by lamivudine is totally different from that seen with siRNA.

Summary Allostery and covalent modification are major means of fast-acting metabolic regulation. Their relative roles in responding to environmental changes remain, however, unclear. Here we examine this issue, using as a case study the rapid decrease in pyruvate kinase flux in yeast upon glucose removal. The main pyruvate kinase isozyme (Cdc19) is phosphorylated in response to environmental cues. It also exhibits positively-cooperative (ultrasensitive) allosteric activation by fructose-1,6-bisphosphate (FBP). Glucose removal causes accumulation of Cdc19’s substrate, phosphoenolpyruvate. This response is retained in strains with altered protein-kinase-A or AMP-activated-protein-kinase activity or with CDC19 carrying mutated phosphorylation sites. In contrast, yeast engineered with a CDC19 point mutation that ablates FBP-based regulation fail to accumulate phosphoenolpyruvate. They also fail to grow on ethanol and slowly resume growth upon glucose upshift. Thus, while yeast pyruvate kinase is covalently modified in response to glucose availability, its activity is controlled almost exclusively by ultrasensitive allostery.