Biomedical subjects

R Loewith

Publications and source records attributed to R Loewith.

5 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2006

Cell growth control: little eukaryotes make big contributions.

The story of rapamycin is a pharmaceutical fairytale. Discovered as an antifungal activity in a soil sample collected on Easter Island, this macrocyclic lactone and its derivatives are now billion dollar drugs, used in, and being evaluated for, a number of clinical applications. Taking advantage of its antifungal property, the molecular Target Of Rapamycin, TOR, was first described in the budding yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae. TORs encode large, Ser/Thr protein kinases that reside in two distinct, structurally and functionally conserved, multi-protein complexes. In yeast, these complexes coordinate many different aspects of cell growth. TOR complex 1, TORC1, promotes protein synthesis and other anabolic processes, while inhibiting macroautophagy and other catabolic and stress-response processes. TORC2 primarily regulates cell polarity, although additional readouts of this complex are beginning to be characterized. TORC1 appears to be activated by nutrient cues and inhibited by stresses and rapamycin; however, detailed mechanisms are not known. In contrast, TORC2 is insensitive to rapamycin and physiological regulators of this complex have yet to be defined. Given the unsurpassed resources available to yeast researchers, this simple eukaryote continues to contribute to our understanding of eukaryotic cell growth in general and TOR function in particular.

Animals↗

PubMed2001

Pho23 is associated with the Rpd3 histone deacetylase and is required for its normal function in regulation of gene expression and silencing in Saccharomyces cerevisiae.

The Rpd3 histone deacetylase (HDAC) functions in a large complex containing many proteins including Sin3 and Sap30. Previous evidence indicates that the pho23, rpd3, sin3, and sap30 mutants exhibit similar defects in PHO5 regulation. We report that pho23 mutants like rpd3, sin3, and sap30 are hypersensitive to cycloheximide and heat shock and exhibit enhanced silencing of rDNA, telomeric, and HMR loci, suggesting that these genes are functionally related. Based on these observations, we explored whether Pho23 is a component of the Rpd3 HDAC complex. Our results demonstrate that Myc-Pho23 co-immunoprecipitates with HA-Rpd3 and HA-Sap30. Furthermore, similar levels of HDAC activity were detected in immunoprecipitates of HA-Pho23, HA-Rpd3, or HA-Sap30. In contrast, HDAC activity was not detected in immunoprecipitates of HA-Pho23 or HA-Sap30 from strains lacking Rpd3, suggesting that Rpd3 is the HDAC associated with these proteins. However, HDAC activity was detected in immunoprecipitates of HA-Sap30 or HA-Rpd3 from cells lacking Pho23, although levels were significantly lower than those detected in wild-type cells, indicating that Rpd3 activity is compromised in the absence of Pho23. Together, our genetic and biochemical studies provide strong evidence that Pho23 is a component of the Rpd3 HDAC complex, and is required for the normal function of this complex.

Acid Phosphatase↗

PubMed2000

Three yeast proteins related to the human candidate tumor suppressor p33(ING1) are associated with histone acetyltransferase activities.

Three Saccharomyces cerevisiae proteins (Yng1/YOR064c, Yng2/YHR090c, and Pho23) and two Schizosaccharomyces pombe proteins (Png1/CAA15917 and Png2/CAA21250) share significant sequence identity with the human candidate tumor suppressor p33(ING1) in their C-terminal regions. The homologous regions contain PHD finger domains which have been implicated in chromatin-mediated transcriptional regulation. We show that GFP-Yng2, like human Ing1, is localized in the nucleus. Deletion of YNG2 results in several phenotypes, including an abnormal multibudded morphology, an inability to utilize nonfermentable carbon sources, heat shock sensitivity, slow growth, temperature sensitivity, and sensitivity to caffeine. These phenotypes are suppressed by expression of either human Ing1 or S. pombe Png1, suggesting that the yeast and human proteins are functionally conserved. Yng1- and Pho23-deficient cells also share some of these phenotypes. We demonstrated by yeast two-hybrid and coimmunoprecipitation tests that Yng2 interacts with Tra1, a component of histone acetyltransferase (HAT) complexes. We further demonstrated by coimmunoprecipitation that HA-Yng1, HA-Yng2, HA-Pho23, and HA-Ing1 are associated with HAT activities in yeast. Genetic and biochemical evidence indicate that the Yng2-associated HAT is Esa1, suggesting that Yng2 is a component of the NuA4 HAT complex. These studies suggest that the yeast Ing1-related proteins are involved in chromatin remodeling. They further suggest that these functions may be conserved in mammals and provide a possible mechanism for the human Ing1 candidate tumor suppressor.

Acetyltransferases↗

PubMed2000

Skh1, the MEK component of the mkh1 signaling pathway in Schizosaccharomyces pombe.

We previously reported the identification of Mkh1, a MEK kinase in Schizosaccharomyces pombe that is required for cell wall integrity, and we presented genetic evidence that Pmk1/Spm1, a MAP kinase, functions downstream from Mkh1 in the same pathway. Here, we report the identification of Skh1, a MEK (MAP kinase kinase) in S. pombe. The sequence of Skh1 is nearly identical to that of the recently reported Pek1 sequence. We present biochemical and genetic evidence that Skh1 is the MEK component of the Mkh1-Spm1 MAP kinase cascade. Our yeast two-hybrid results indicate that Mkh1, Skh1, and Spm1 physically interact to form a ternary complex. Deletion of mkh1, skh1 or spm1 results in identical phenotypes, including sensitivity to (beta)-glucanase treatment, growth inhibition on media containing KCl, and filamentous growth on medium containing caffeine. Double mutant strains exhibit phenotypes that are identical to the single mutant strains. Furthermore, expression of an activated HA-Skh1(DD )protein suppressed these defects in mkh1(delta) cells, and overexpression of Spm1 suppressed these defects in skh1(delta) cells. We also show that HA-Spm1 is hyper-phosphorylated on tyrosine residues in cells co-expressing the activated HA-Skh1(DD) protein. Furthermore, we found the phosphorylated/activated form of GFP-HA-Spm1 at detectable levels in wild-type cells, but not at appreciable levels in mkh1(delta) or skh1(delta) cells expressing this fusion protein. Together, our results indicate that Mkh1, Skh1 and Spm1 constitute a MAPK cascade in fission yeast.

Amino Acid Sequence↗

PubMed1996

Mammalian CAP interacts with CAP, CAP2, and actin.

We previously identified human CAP, a homolog of the yeast adenylyl cyclase-associated protein. Previous studies suggest that the N-terminal and C-terminal domains of CAP have distinct functions. We have explored the interactions of human CAP with various proteins. First, by performing yeast two-hybrid screens, we have identified peptides from several proteins that interact with the C-terminal and/or the N-terminal domains of human CAP. These peptides include regions derived from CAP and BAT3, a protein with unknown function. We have further shown that MBP fusions with these peptides can associate in vitro with the N-terminal or C-terminal domains of CAP fused to GST. Our observations indicate that CAP contains regions in both the N-terminal and C-terminal domains that are capable of interacting with each other or with themselves. Furthermore, we found that myc-epitope-tagged CAP coimmunoprecipitates with HA-epitope-tagged CAP from either yeast or mammalian cell extracts. Similar results demonstrate that human CAP can also interact with human CAP2. We also show that human CAP interacts with actin, both by the yeast two-hybrid test and by coimmunoprecipitation of epitope-tagged CAP from yeast or mammalian cell extracts. This interaction requires the C-terminal domain of CAP, but not the N-terminal domain. Thus CAP appears to be capable of interacting in vivo with other CAP molecules, CAP2, and actin. We also show that actin co-immunoprecipitates with HA-CAP2 from mammalian cell extracts.

3T3 Cells↗