Sudden changes in nutrient resources are common in the natural environment. Cells are able to adapt and propagate under changing environmental conditions by making adjustments in their cellular processes. These cellular adaptations involve genome-wide transcriptional reprogramming that results in the induction or repression of metabolic pathways. Specific enzymes are then synthesised and activated to maximise the use of the newly available nutrient sources. L-serine is one of the twenty proteinogenic amino acids, and can be synthesised in yeast by the glycolytic and gluconeogenic pathways when growing on fermentable or non-fermentable carbon sources or taken up from the environment when available. L-serine is metabolically linked to glycine and is a predominant donor of one-carbon units in one-carbon metabolism. L-serine is also a source of pyruvate and ammonia and contributes to other cellular processes including the biosynthesis of cysteine and phospholipids. Previous work has shown that yeast cells exhibit transcriptional induction of the one-carbon pathway and the genes involved in the synthesis of purine and methionine after the addition of 10 mM glycine. Here it is shown that addition of 10 mM L-serine did not, however, elicit the same transcriptional response. This is primarily due to differences in the uptake of glycine and L-serine in yeast. High concentrations of extracellular L-serine were required for yeast to show an increase in intracellular L-serine concentration of the magnitude required to trigger a noticeable cellular response. Despite L-serine and glycine being interconvertable via the SHMT isozymes and being a one-carbon donor, the genome-wide transcriptional response exhibited by cells in response to L-serine addition was markedly different to that seen for glycine. The predominant response to an increase in intracellular L-serine was the induction of the general amino acid control system and the CHA1 gene encoding the serine (threonine) dehydratase. Unlike glycine, addition of L-serine triggered only minor induction of the one-carbon pathway. A large portion of intracellular L-serine was converted to pyruvate and ammonia in the mitochondrion as the result of induction of CHA1. The high intracellular concentration of L-serine stimulated the cell to increase the production of oxaloacetate and to increase the biosynthesis of L-aspartate. Transient increases in the intracellular L-glutamate and L-glutamine were also observed after the addition of L-serine. The work presented in this study shows that large increase in the intracellular concentration of amino acid is required to trigger a significant transcriptional response. Yeast cells exhibit different transcriptional and metabolic responses to the addition of L-serine and glycine even though these two amino acids are closely metabolically linked. Addition of L-serine provokes the GAAC response, expression of the CHA1 gene and stimulates the biosynthesis of L-aspartate in yeast whereas addition of glycine induces the one-carbon pathway which leads to the biosynthesis of the purine nucleotides.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ADTP/215732 |
| Date | January 2008 |
| Creators | Lee, Johnny Chien-Yi, Biotechnology & Biomolecular Sciences, Faculty of Science, UNSW |
| Publisher | Publisher:University of New South Wales. Biotechnology & Biomolecular Sciences |
| Source Sets | Australiasian Digital Theses Program |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Rights | http://unsworks.unsw.edu.au/copyright, http://unsworks.unsw.edu.au/copyright |
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