Translation termination efficiency can be regulated in Saccharomyces cerevisiae by environmental stress through a prion-mediated mechanism

Eaglestone, Simon

doi:10.1093/emboj/18.7.1974

Cited by 198 publications

(162 citation statements)

References 42 publications

(75 reference statements)

Supporting

Mentioning

159

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…A report that [PSI+] makes cells resistant to heat or to elevated ethanol concentration (22) was not confirmed by a second report (23), and the benefits of [PSI+] reported in this second report again were not confirmed by a third report using the same strains (24). If yeast prions do provide a benefit, then yeast should be able to induce their appearance under suitable conditions.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 83%

“…The [Het-s] prion of P. anserina is involved in heterokaryon incompatibility, a normal function of that species, and, as a result, ∼80% of wild strains with the appropriate chromosomal genotype carry the [Het-s] prion (17,18 (20), a result confirmed by others (21) and which we interpreted as meaning that they are substantially detrimental. Nonetheless, others argue that these prions are beneficial, promoting survival by allowing cells to resist stress (22,23), although the reported effects were not reproducible with the same strains (24). It is reported further that certain stress conditions increase the frequency of…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Sex, prions, and plasmids in yeast

Kelly

Shewmaker

Kryndushkin

et al. 2012

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Even deadly prions may be widespread in nature if they spread by infection faster than they kill off their hosts. The yeast prions [PSI+] and [URE3] (amyloids of Sup35p and Ure2p) were not found in 70 wild strains, while [PIN+] (amyloid of Rnq1p) was found in ∼16% of the same population. Yeast prion infection occurs only by mating, balancing the detrimental effects of carrying the prion. We estimated the frequency of outcross mating as about 1% of mitotic doublings from the known detriment of carrying the 2-μm DNA plasmid (∼1%) and its frequency in wild populations (38/70). We also estimated the fraction of total matings that are outcross matings (∼23-46%) from the fraction of heterozygosity at the highly polymorphic RNQ1 locus (∼46% [PIN+] of S. cerevisiae are parallel in-register β-sheet amyloids of Sup35p, Ure2p, and Rnq1p, respectively (7-10); the [Het-s] prion of P. anserina is a β-helical amyloid of the HET-s protein (11). Sup35p is a subunit of the translation termination factor (12, 13), Ure2p is a regulator of nitrogen catabolism (14), and Rnq1p has no known function (15).The mammalian prions are uniformly lethal but nonetheless are found in wild animals. For example, chronic wasting disease of deer and elk is found in ∼10% of wild deer in parts of Wyoming, Colorado, Illinois, and Wisconsin (16). Evidently, infectious spread outpaces the lethal effects on the animals. The [Het-s] prion of P. anserina is involved in heterokaryon incompatibility, a normal function of that species, and, as a result, ∼80% of wild strains with the appropriate chromosomal genotype carry the [Het-s] (20), a result confirmed by others (21) and which we interpreted as meaning that they are substantially detrimental. Nonetheless, others argue that these prions are beneficial, promoting survival by allowing cells to resist stress (22, 23), although the reported effects were not reproducible with the same strains (24). It is reported further that certain stress conditions increase the frequency of[PSI+] when assayed using a synthetic Sup35p with an elevated prion-forming tendency (25). Here we test these conditions for an effect on prion formation by the wild-type Sup35p.Our argument, that the rare occurrence of an infectious agent in nature implies pathologic effects on the host, relies on outcross mating being a fairly frequent event. Yeast prions spread only by mating (there is no extracellular prion species in the replication cycle), and if outcross mating is extremely rare, then yeast prions could be rare even if their effects on the host were neutral. Yeast spores germinate with mating type either a or α, and a and α spores from the same tetrad may mate (intratetrad or brothersister). The mating-type switching system (homothallism) results in the clone from a single germinated spore becoming a mixture of a and α cells which can mate with each other. These two kinds of "selfing" are unlikely to spread any virus, plasmid, or prion, because probably both mating partners will lack the element, or both will have it. Alternat...

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 83%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Sex, prions, and plasmids in yeast

Kelly

Shewmaker

Kryndushkin

et al. 2012

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Two major size variants of Nvjp-1 were consistently detected in all cDNA preparations, consisting of the larger NVjp-1a and a potential truncation product, NVjp-1b. Alignment of sequences from all clones revealed an additional variant similar to NVjp1a (hereafter termed "NVjp-1a 1 and NVjp-1a 2 "), which consisted of the deletion of two GH repeats (residues [40][41][42][43] and an insertion of one additional GYGGHG repeat (residues 83-88, based on the sequence of NVjp-1a 1 ). The combined frequencies of NVjp-1a 1 , NVjp-1b, and NVjp-1a 2 from all cDNA preparations were 0.56, 0.33, and 0.11, respectively.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Cutting Edge Structural Protein from the Jaws of Nereis virens

et al. 2008

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The fang-like jaws of the marine polychaete Nereis Virens possess remarkable mechanical properties considering their high protein content and lack of mineralization. Hardness and stiffness properties in the jaw tip are comparable to human dentin and are achieved by extensive coordination of Zn 2+ by a histidine-rich protein framework. In the present study, the predominant protein in the jaw tip, NVjp-1, was purified and characterized by partial peptide mapping and molecular cloning of a partial cDNA from a jaw pulp library. The deduced amino acid sequence revealed an ∼38 kDa histidine-rich protein rich in glycine and histidine (∼36 and 27%, respectively) with no well-defined repetitive motifs. The effects of pH and metal treatment on aggregation, secondary structure, and hydrodynamic properties of recombinant Nvjp-1 are described. Notably, Zn treatment induced the formation of amyloid-like fibers.

show abstract

“…The resulting reduction in translation termination activity causes an increase in ribosomal frame-shifting (Namy et al 2008;Park et al 2009) and stop codon read-through (Liebman and Sherman 1979;Patino et al 1996;Paushkin et al 1996). The sequences downstream of stop codons are highly variable, and this, in turn, facilitates the sudden generation of new phenotypes by the uncovering of previously hidden genetic variation (Eaglestone et al 1999;True and Lindquist 2000;True et al 2004). The other well-understood prion protein, Ure2p, regulates nitrogen catabolism through its interaction with the transcriptional activator Gln3p.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%