PubMed · 2140760
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M Dissanayake, S M Powell. 1990. Hioxyl sensitivity.. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1600-0536.1990.tb01584.x
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Fusel alcohols are natural products of amino acid catabolism in the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae that cause morphological changes similar to those seen during pseudohyphal growth. We have discovered that certain of these alcohols, including butanol and isoamyl alcohol, bring about a rapid inhibition of translation at the initiation step. This inhibition is strain specific and is not explained by previously described translational control pathways. Using genetic mapping, we have identified a proline to serine allelic variation at amino acid 180 of the GCD1 gene product as the genetic locus that allows translational regulation upon butanol addition. Gcd1p forms part of the eIF2B guanine nucleotide complex that is responsible for recycling eIF2-GDP to eIF2-GTP. This represents one of the key limiting steps of translation initiation and we provide evidence that fusel alcohols target eIF2B in order to bring about translational regulation.
Two types of alcohol-specific microbial/electrochemical biosensors have been developed using specially constructed mutant cells of the methylotrophic yeast Hansenula polymorpha. The cells were immobilized in a calcium alginate gel, and placed between two membranes on the surface of oxygen or hydrogen peroxide-electrodes. The O2 electrode based biosensor contained mutant cells with strongly elevated alcohol oxidase activity. The peroxide electrode based biosensor consisted of catalase-defective mutant cells which produce hydrogen peroxide in the presence of alcohol. Both types of mutant cells were used in permeabilized form in order to release some components of the cellular respiration system, thus increasing the selectivity of the cellular respiration response to alcohol (cell/O2-biosensor) Permeabilization also increased sensitivity of the signal and shortened the response time (cell/H2O2-biosensor). Cell/O2 biosensors were linear up to 1.2 mM for ethanol and 0.35 mM for methanol, cell/H2O2 biosensors were linear up to 4.0 mM for ethanol, and 1.2 mM for methanol. Results were reproducible, sample pretreatment was not required, and the sensors exhibited good operational and storage stability. The use of sucrose, dulcitol or inositol during the preparation of the sensors resulted in increased stability of cells during their liophilization and storage in the dried state. Both biosensors had similar selectivity towards alcohols in the order of methanol (100%), ethanol (21%), and formaldehyde (12%). No signal was observed with glucose or glycerol as substrates.
Alcohols have been shown to cause a conformational transition of proteins into a new stable conformational state resembling that of the "molten globule intermediate" characterized by high alpha-helical content and disrupted tertiary structure. We have studied the effect of monohydric alcohols on the stability and structural characteristics of small globular protein hen egg white lysozyme by the combined use of differential scanning calorimetry, circular dichroism, and nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy. The protein stability was found to be significantly decreased with increasing alcohol concentration, and, in presence of moderate to higher alcohol concentrations, depending on the pH and alcohol studied, the protein was found to be unfolded even at 4 degrees C. Correlation between thermal stability and alpha-helicity of several small globular proteins like hen egg white lysozyme, horse heart cytochrome C, and bovine carbonic anhydrase B, observed in presence of increasing alcohol concentrations, suggests that probably alcohols induce helical structures in unfolded protein. The temperature-dependent near- and far-UV circular dichroism and proton nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopic studies on lysozyme in the presence of 2,2,2-trifluoroethanol and methanol, respectively, showed that alcohols do induce significantly higher helical structures in unfolded protein compared to folded protein. The results presented in this paper suggest that the molten globule intermediate of proteins in the presence of high alcohols as reported earlier is due to alcohol-induced local folding rather than global folding of unfolded protein and hence is an off-pathway product and not a real folding intermediate.