Stress‐activated signalling pathways in yeast

Abstract

Eukaryotic cells have developed response mechanisms to combat the harmful effects of a variety of stress conditions. In the majority of cases, such responses involve changes in the gene expression pattern of the cell, leading to increased levels and activities of proteins that have stress-protective functions. Over the last few years, considerable progress has been made in understanding how stress-dependent transcriptional changes are brought about, and it transpires that the underlying mechanisms are highly conserved, being similar in organisms ranging from yeast to man. Many of the stress signals derive from the extracellular environment and accordingly these signals require transduction from the cell surface to the nucleus. This is accomplished through stress-activated signalling pathways, key amongst which are the highly conserved stress-activated MAP kinase pathways. Stimulation of these pathways leads to the increased activity of specific transcription factors and consequently the increased expression of certain stress-related genes. In this review, we focus on the progress that has been made in understanding these stress responses in yeast.

Fungal Hsp90: a biological transistor that tunes cellular outputs to thermal inputs

“…The highly conserved stress activated protein kinase, Hog1/Sty1, has crucial roles in stress adaptation in S. cerevisiae, S. pombe and C. albicans 32,[105][106][107][108][109] , and in C. albicans, this key stress regulator contributes to virulence 110 . Therefore, the fact that Hog1 has been identified as an Hsp90 client protein 67,111 is important in terms of fungal stress adaptation and pathogenicity.…”

JNK1 stress signaling is hyper-activated in high breast density and the tumor stroma: Connecting fibrosis, inflammation, and stemness for cancer prevention

“…26 Extracellular stressors (such as hydrogen peroxide and ROS), pro-inflammatory cytokines, and/or even physical stress (including UV light) all activate JNK signaling. [27][28][29] The JNK pathway mediates the immediate-early response to a wide variety of cellular perturbations or stressors. 30 Two dual-specificity kinases, namely MKK4 and MKK7, phosphorylate and activate JNK1 (also known as MAPK8).…”

The Srk1 Protein Kinase Is a Target for the Sty1 Stress-activated MAPK in Fission Yeast

“…: 44-191-2227444; Fax: 44-191-2227424; E-mail: janet.quinn@ncl.ac.uk. 1 The abbreviations used are: MAPK, mitogen-activated protein kinase; NTA, nitrilotriacetic acid; SAPK, stress-activated protein kinase; JNK, c-Jun N-terminal kinase; MAPKK, mitogen-activated protein kinase kinase; MAPKAP kinase, mitogen-activated protein kinase-activated protein kinase.…”