Biomedical subjects
J C Argüelles
Publications and source records attributed to J C Argüelles.
Learning about microbiology: virus or bacteria?
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Physiological roles of trehalose in bacteria and yeasts: a comparative analysis.
The disaccharide trehalose is widely distributed in nature and can be found in many organisms, including bacteria, fungi, plants, invertebrates and mammals. Due to its particular physical features, trehalose is able to protect the integrity of the cell against a variety of environmental injuries and nutritional limitations. In addition, data available on several species of bacteria and yeast suggest specific functions for trehalose in these organisms. Bacteria can use exogenous trehalose as the sole source of carbon and energy as well as synthesize enormous amounts of the disaccharide as compatible solute. This ability to accumulate trehalose is the result of an elaborate genetic system, which is regulated by osmolarity. Some mycobacteria contain sterified trehalose as a structural component of the cell wall, whereas yeast cells are largely unable to grow on trehalose as carbon source. In these lower eukaryotes, trehalose appears to play a dual function: as a reserve compound, mainly stored in vegetative resting cells and reproductive structures, and as a stress metabolite. Recent findings also point to important biotechnological applications for trehalose.
Changes in external trehalase activity during human serum-induced dimorphic transition in Candida albicans.
Yeast-like cells (blastoconidia) of Candida albicans growing exponentially on a glucose-containing medium (YPD) exhibited low external trehalase activity and stored a negligible amount of intracellular trehalose. The addition of human serum at 37 degrees C to exponential cultures promoted a high degree of germ-tube formation with no significant changes in trehalase activity or trehalose content. In contrast, stationary cells accumulated a large amount of trehalose, while external trehalase remained at a low and practically constant level. However, resting cultures were unable to enter the dimorphic program, except when they were supplemented with fresh YPD and serum together. Only under these conditions was trehalase activated and trehalose hydrolyzed. Specific inhibition of external trehalase by validoxylamine A caused a certain delay in, and a lower level of, germ-tube formation, but did not totally block the dimorphic conversion. These results suggest that external trehalase is not involved in the serum-induced morphological transition in C. albicans.
The corollary of scientific research: "Publish or be damned".
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Trehalose hydrolysis is not required for human serum-induced dimorphic transition in Candida albicans: evidence from a tps1/tps1 mutant deficient in trehalose synthesis.
Exponential yeast-like cells of a Candida albicans wild-type strain exhibited strong capacity for germ tube formation in a glucose-containing medium (YPD) after induction with human serum at 37 degrees C, whereas the isogenic double disruptant tps1/tps1 mutant, which is deficient in trehalose synthesis, failed to produce germ tubes. In a medium without glucose (YP), the morphological transition fraction was roughly equivalent in both strains. Substitution of glucose by galactose or glycerol increased the number of wild-type proliferating cells able to enter the dimorphic program with no noticeable change in their trehalose content, while stationary cells, which accumulate a large amount of trehalose, did not form germ tubes. When fresh medium was added, a high proportion of these resting cells recovered their ability to carry out dimorphic transition. The tps1/tps1 mutant followed the same pattern of hyphae formation, despite the fact that it was unable to accumulate trehalose either during dimorphism induction or after several stress challenges. Furthermore, trehalose-6-phosphate synthase activity was barely detectable in the mutant. These results strongly suggest that serum-induced dimorphic transition does not require trehalose mobilization; they also support the idea that TPS1 is the only activity involved in trehalose biosynthesis in C. albicans.
Thermotolerance and trehalose accumulation induced by heat shock in yeast cells of Candida albicans.
Candida albicans yeast cells growing exponentially on glucose are extremely sensitive to severe heat shock treatments (52.5 degrees C for 5 min). When these cultures were subjected to a mild temperature preincubation (42 degrees C), they became thermotolerant and displayed higher resistance to further heat stress. The intracellular content of trehalose was very low in exponential cells, but underwent a marked increase upon non-lethal heat exposure. The accumulation of trehalose is likely due to heat-induced activation of the trehalose-6-phosphate synthase complex, whereas the external trehalase remained practically unmodified. After a temperature reversion shift (from 42 degrees C to 28 degrees C), the pool of trehalose was rapidly mobilized without any concomitant change in trehalase activity. These results support an important role of trehalose in the mechanism of acquired thermotolerance in C. albicans and seem to exclude the external trehalase as a key enzyme in this process.
Cell-linked and extracellular cholesterol oxidase activities from Rhodococcus erythropolis. Isolation and physiological characterization.
Rhodococcus erythropolis cells growing in a cholesterol-free glycerol-containing mineral medium displayed very low levels of a cell-wall-bound cholesterol oxidase activity. Addition of cholesterol induced a marked increase in the synthesis of this enzyme, which reached a maximum within 6 days and was subsequently followed by the appearance of extracellular cholesterol oxidase in the culture broth. Significant levels of induction were only achieved when cholesterol emulsified with Tween 80. The presence of chloramphenicol at the time of induction completely prevented the emergence of both enzymatic forms, suggesting the requirement of de novo protein synthesis. Upon transfer of cholesterol-growing cultures to fresh medium lacking cholesterol, the extracellular cholesterol oxidase was quickly erased, while the activity of the particulate enzyme decreased sharply. The electrophoretic pattern on native Western blotting as well as on sodium dodecyl sulphate/polyacrylamide gels, together with kinetic data, strongly support the idea that the particulate and extracellular cholesterol oxidases are two different forms of the same enzyme with an estimated molecular mass of 55 kDa.
Constitutive glucose-induced activation of the Ras-cAMP pathway and aberrant stationary-phase entry on a glucose-containing medium in the Saccharomyces cerevisiae glucose-repression mutant hex2.
Addition of glucose to cells of the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae growing on a nonfermentable carbon source triggers a rapid, transient increase in the cAMP level. The occurrence of this cAMP spike appears to be correlated inversely with the glucose-repression state of the cells. This was also observed for the hex2 mutant, which is deficient in glucose repression and which displayed the cAMP signal constitutively. When cells of the hex2 mutant were starved for nitrogen on a glucose-containing medium, they rapidly lost viability, similarly to mutants with overactivation of the Ras-adenylate cyclase pathway. Flow cytometry measurements showed that G1 arrest of the hex2 mutant under such conditions was incomplete. Trehalose accumulation, a typical feature of cells entering the stationary phase G0, was very short-lived in the hex2 mutant under the same conditions. These results are in agreement with the presence of continuous glucose-triggered activation of cAMP synthesis in hex2 cells on a glucose-containing nitrogen-starvation medium. In the course of these experiments a spontaneous suppressor mutant, shx (for suppressor of hex2), was isolated which survived nitrogen starvation on a glucose-containing medium much better than the hex2 strain. It also showed normal G1 arrest and much longer accumulation of trehalose. The suppressor mutation also caused inability to grow on nonfermentable carbon sources and absence of invertase depression, and it was epistatic to hex2 for these characteristics also. The isolation of this epistatic depression mutation supports the idea that the defect in glucose repression of the hex2 mutant is the cause of its rapid loss of viability during nitrogen starvation on a glucose-containing medium.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Heat-shock response in a yeast tps1 mutant deficient in trehalose synthesis.
Exponential cells of the Saccharomyces cerevisiae tps1 mutant underwent a rapid loss of viability upon a non-lethal heat exposure (from 28 to 42 degrees C). However, a further more severe heat stress (52.5 degrees C 5 min) induced an increase in the fraction of viable cells. This mutant can not synthesize trehalose either at 28 degrees C or at 42 degrees C due to the lack of a functional trehalose-6P synthase complex. In control experiments carried out with the wild-type W303-1B, heat-stressed exponential phase cultures grown on YPgal at 28 degrees C acquired thermotolerance to a higher extent than identical cultures grown on YPD, although in both cultures the level of stored trehalose was negligible. These data suggest that the bulk of trehalose accumulated in yeast upon mild heat treatments is not sufficient to account for the acquisition of thermotolerance.
Differential changes in the activity of cytosolic and vacuolar trehalases along the growth cycle of Saccharomyces cerevisiae.
Saccharomyces cerevisiae cells contain two intracellular and soluble trehalases with distinct subcellular location (cytosol and vacuoles, respectively). Both enzymes showed an opposite pattern of activity along the growth cycle. Activity of the cytosolic trehalase was high in cells growing exponentially on fermentable sugars (glucose, mannose or galactose) and sharply decayed as the cultures enter stationary phase coinciding with the beginning of trehalose biosynthesis. By contrast, vacuolar trehalase was only detectable in glucose-grown resting cells or in cultures growing on respiratory substrates (glycerol or ethanol). This enzyme was partially derepressed in the mutant hex2, which is deficient in glucose repression. Addition of fresh YPD medium to stationary-phase cultures induced the sudden reactivation of cytosolic trehalase with the concomitant slower inactivation of vacuolar trehalase. However, addition of glucose or various nitrogen sources alone had only a minor effect on both activities. The presence of cycloheximide had no effect on cytosolic trehalase, whereas completely blocked the appearance of vacuolar trehalase suggesting the requirement of protein synthesis 'de novo'.
Activation of trehalase during growth induction by nitrogen sources in the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae depends on the free catalytic subunits of cAMP-dependent protein kinase, but not on functional Ras proteins.
Addition of a nitrogen-source to glucose-repressed, nitrogen-starved G0 cells of the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae in the presence of a fermentable carbon source induces growth and causes within a few minutes a five-fold, protein-synthesis-independent increase in the activity of trehalase. Nitrogen-activated trehalase could be deactivated in vitro by alkaline phosphatase treatment, supporting the idea that the activation is triggered by phosphorylation. Yeast strains containing only one of the three TPK genes (which encode the catalytic subunit of cAMP-dependent protein kinase) showed different degrees of nitrogen-induced trehalase activation. The order of effectiveness was different from that previously reported for glucose-induced activation of trehalase in glucose-depressed yeast cells. Further reduction of TPK-encoded catalytic subunit activity by partially inactivating point mutations in the remaining TPK gene further diminished nitrogen-induced trehalase activation, while deletion of the BCY1 gene (which encodes the regulatory subunit) in the same strains resulted in an increase in the extent of activation. Deletion of the RAS genes in such a tpkw1 bcy1 strain had no effect. These results are consistent with mediation of nitrogen-induced trehalase activation by the free catalytic subunits alone. They support our previous conclusion that cAMP does not act as second messenger in this nitrogen-induced activation process and our suggestion that a novel nitrogen-induced signaling pathway integrates with the cAMP pathway at the level of the free catalytic subunits of protein kinase A. Western blot experiments showed that the differences in the extent of trehalase activation were not due to differences in trehalase expression. On the other hand, we cannot completely exclude that protein kinase A influences the nitrogen-induced activation mechanism itself rather than acting directly on trehalase. However, any such alternative explanation requires the existence of an additional, yet unknown, mechanism for activation of trehalase besides the well-established regulation by protein kinase A.
Absence of glucose-induced cAMP signaling in the Saccharomyces cerevisiae mutants cat1 and cat3 which are deficient in derepression of glucose-repressible proteins.
Addition of glucose to derepressed cells of the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae induces a transient, specific cAMP signal. Intracellular acidification in these cells, as caused by addition of protonophores like 2,4-dinitrophenol (DNP) causes a large, lasting increase in the cAMP level. The effect of glucose and DNP was investigated in glucose-repressed wild type cells and in cells of two mutants which are deficient in derepression of glucose-repressible proteins, cat1 and cat3. Addition of glucose to cells of the cat3 mutant caused a transient increase in the cAMP level whereas cells of the cat1 mutant and in most cases also repressed wild type cells did not respond to glucose addition with a cAMP increase. The glucose-induced cAMP increase in cat3 cells and the cAMP increase occasionally present in repressed wild type cells however could be prevented completely by addition of a very low level of glucose in advance. In derepressed wild type cells this does not prevent the specific glucose-induced cAMP signal at all. These results indicate that repressed cells do not show a true glucose-induced cAMP signal. When DNP was added to glucose-repressed wild type cells or to cells of the cat1 and cat3 mutants no cAMP increase was observed. Addition of a very low level of glucose before the DNP restored the cAMP increase which points to lack of ATP as the cause for the absence of the DNP effect. These data show that intracellular acidification is able to enhance the cAMP level in repressed cells.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Glucose-induced hyperaccumulation of cyclic AMP and defective glucose repression in yeast strains with reduced activity of cyclic AMP-dependent protein kinase.
Addition of glucose or related fermentable sugars to derepressed cells of the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae triggers a RAS-mediated cyclic AMP (cAMP) signal that induces a protein phosphorylation cascade. In yeast mutants (tpk1w1, tpk2w1, and tpk3w1) containing reduced activity of cAMP-dependent protein kinase, fermentable sugars, as opposed to nonfermentable carbon sources, induced a permanent hyperaccumulation of cAMP. This finding confirms previous conclusions that fermentable sugars are specific stimulators of cAMP synthesis in yeast cells. Despite the huge cAMP levels present in these mutants, deletion of the gene (BCY1) coding for the regulatory subunit of cAMP-dependent protein kinase severely reduced hyperaccumulation of cAMP. Glucose-induced hyperaccumulation of cAMP was also observed in exponential-phase glucose-grown cells of the tpklw1 and tpk2w1 strains but not the tpk3w1 strain even though addition of glucose to glucose-repressed wild-type cells did not induce a cAMP signal. Investigation of mitochondrial respiration by in vivo 31P nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy showed the tpk1w1 and tpk2w1 strains, to be defective in glucose repression. These results are consistent with the idea that the signal transmission pathway from glucose to adenyl cyclase contains a glucose-repressible protein. They also show that a certain level of cAMP-dependent protein phosphorylation is required for glucose repression. Investigation of the glucose-induced cAMP signal and glucose-induced activation of trehalase in derepressed cells of strains containing only one of the wild-type TPK genes indicates that the transient nature of the cAMP signal is due to feedback inhibition by cAMP-dependent protein kinase.
Inhibition by alpha factor of the glucose-induced activation of regulatory trehalase in Saccharomyces cerevisiae.
The enzyme activity of the regulatory trehalase (alpha, alpha-trehalose glycohydrolase; EC 3.2.1.28) in stationary-phase cells of Saccharomyces cerevisiae increased upon addition of glucose to cell suspensions. Such increase was temporarily retarded in the presence of alpha factor in the medium. The transient inhibition required the joined action of the pheromone-like factor and the protease inhibitor N-alpha-p-tosyl-L-lysine chloromethyl ketone. The inhibition of the glucose-induced activation of trehalase by alpha factor lends support to the involvement of adenosine 3',5'-cyclic monophosphate in the enzyme activation in vivo.
Comparative study of two trehalases from Candida utilis.
Candida utilis ATCC 60459 contains two intracellular trehalase enzymes clearly distinguishable by molecular weight, behaviour in ion-exchange chromatography and kinetic properties. The high molecular weight trehalase (500 kDa trehalase) is specifically inhibited by acetate and accounts for less than 30% of the total trehalase activity found in cell extracts. The smaller trehalase (280 kDa trehalase) exists mostly as a cryptic enzyme whose activity can be postranslationally activated by cAMP-dependent phosphorylation. The enzyme activity of the 280 kDa trehalase is strongly inhibited by Zn2+ and markedly enhanced in the presence of Ca2+ and Mn2+. The activation by these cations, contrariwise to that induced by ATP and cAMP, does not imply a covalent modification of the 280 kDa enzyme. Several parameters have been determined for both enzymes. The 280 kDa enzyme has the properties shown by the so-called regulatory trehalases whereas the 500 kDa enzyme presents characteristics of a nonregulatory type of trehalase.
Lack of correlation between trehalase activation and trehalose-6 phosphate synthase deactivation in cAMP-altered mutants of Saccharomyces cerevisiae.
The rise in cAMP level that follows the addition of glucose or 2,4-dinitrophenol (DNP) to stationary-phase cells of Saccharomyces cerevisiae was accompanied by a marked activation of trehalase (3-fold increase) and a concomitant deactivation of trehalose-6 phosphate synthase (50% of the basal levels). In glucose-grown exponential cells, which are deficient in glucose-induced cAMP signalling, the addition of glucose also prompted a decrease in trehalose-6 phosphate synthase, but had no effect on trehalase activity. Mutants defective in the RAS-adenylate cyclase pathway (ras1 ras2 bcy1 strain), as well as mutants containing greatly reduced protein kinase activity either cAMP-dependent (tpkw1 BCY1 strains) or cAMP-independent (tpk1w1 bcy1 strains), were unable to show glucose- or DNP-induced trehalase activation but still displayed a clear decrease in trehalose-6 phosphate synthase activity upon addition of these compounds. These data suggest that the activity of trehalose-6 phosphate synthase, as opposed to that of trehalase, is not controlled by the cAMP signalling pathway "in vivo". Trehalose-6 phosphate synthase was competitively inhibited by glucose (Ki = 15 mM) and resulted unaffected by ATP in assays performed "in vitro".