Search PubMedSearch

SEARCH · Search PubMed

Results for “yeast model”

Search indexed PubMed citations on genomics, clinical trials, systematic reviews and public health. Explore titles, authors and supplied subject terms, then open the PubMed record.

Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

A yeast model of 5-oxoproline accumulation reveals a general toleration to 5-oxoproline.

5-oxoproline (5-OP) or pyroglutamic acid is an intermediate in the degradation arc of the glutathione cycle. It is metabolized into glutamate through the action of the 5-oxoprolinase enzyme, the only enzyme known to act on this metabolite. 5-OP has long been known to be relatively inert with a proposed role as an osomoprotectant. Recent studies on the 5-oxoprolinase enzyme in mammalian cells have, however, shown that knockdown or deletion of 5-oxoprolinase makes mice (and humans) prone to heart failure, an effect ascribed to oxidative stress caused by a twofold increase in 5-OP. To examine the consequences of 5-oxoproline accumulation more rigorously, we created a yeast model for 5-oxoproline accumulation. Using this model, we observed retardation of growth only when intracellular levels of 5-OP were increased 12- to 20-fold over normal levels. Performing an analysis of transcriptomic changes under these conditions, we observed a large number of genes were differentially regulated and while there was no unifying dysregulated pathway, there was an upregulation of various efflux pumps. Ultimately, modulating the expression of these genes by knockout or overexpression highlighted that many of the upregulated genes were involved in the cellular response to 5-OP accumulation. However, our results failed to show any significant oxidative stress response. In conclusion, our study suggests a need to reevaluate previous suppositions of the 5-OP induced oxidative stress response and proposes alternate mechanisms for this effect.

Pyrrolidonecarboxylic Acid

Evolution and applications of genome-scale metabolic models in yeast systems biology studies.

Genome-scale metabolic models (GEMs) can be used to simulate the metabolic network of an organism in a systematic and holistic way. Different yeast species, including Saccharomyces cerevisiae, have emerged as powerful cell factories for bioproduction. Recently, with the dedicated efforts from the scientific community, significant progress has been made in the development of yeast GEMs. Numerous versions of yeast GEMs and the derived multiscale models have been released, facilitating integrative omics analysis and rational strain design for different types of yeast cell factories. These advancements reflected the evolution and maturation of yeast GEMs together with a model ecosystem around them. This review will summarize the development and expansion of yeast GEMs and discuss their applications in yeast systems biology studies. It is anticipated that yeast GEMs will continue to play an increasingly important role in pioneering yeast physiological and metabolic studies in coming years.

Systems Biology

Kinetic modelling of yeast phosphofructokinase.

Phosphofructokinase from baker's yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) is an octameric enzyme which exhibits complex allosteric behaviour. In contrast to mammalian phosphofructokinase, the enzyme does not show association-dissociation behaviour. A systematic kinetic investigation at pH 7.2 in dependence on the substrates, fructose 6-phosphate and ATP as well as on the effectors AMP and ADP is presented. The results are interpreted in terms of a structure oriented theoretical model. Because the two state model of Monod, Wyman and Changeux proved to be insufficient for interpretation of the experimental data, it was extended to a four state model in which the basic conformations R and T of the enzyme are split into subconformations R1 and R2 as well as T1 and T2, respectively. It is assumed that fructose 6-phosphate and the adenine nucleotides influence different allosteric equilibria. The model permits a precise quantitative description of the experimental data.

Adenosine Diphosphate

Histidine Supplementation Stabilizes Hearing and Vision and Improves Growth in HARS1-Related Autosomal Recessive Disorder Associated With Usher-Like Symptoms.

Autosomal recessive HARS1-related disorder (originally described as Usher syndrome type 3B) caused by a homozygous Y454S variant in the histidyl-tRNA synthetase gene (HARS1) is characterized by progressive sensorineural hearing and vision loss and respiratory deterioration with risk for sudden death following febrile illnesses. In-vitro studies have previously shown that histidine can rescue a humanized yeast model for pathogenic HARS alleles. Fourteen children homozygous for HARS Y454S were treated with supplemental oral histidine (50 mg/kg BID) and monitored with bloodwork and physical, visual, and audiometry assessments during a 3-year clinical trial, then followed for more than 4 years on histidine in the post-trial period. Patient fibroblasts were assessed for response to histidine. Hearing and vision remained stable, and growth improved significantly. Children remained healthy, with no severe deteriorations despite exposure to bacterial and viral infections, including COVID-19. Gains in growth were maintained in the post-trial period on varying levels of histidine supplementation. Daily oral histidine supplementation in children with autosomal recessive HARS1-related disorder can ameliorate or slow the progression of disease and is safe, inexpensive, and well tolerated. This study adds to the growing list of autosomal recessive ARSopathies (aminoacyl-tRNA synthetase disorders) that are amenable to amino acid supplementation.

Humans

CoMR: an integrative scoring pipeline for comprehensive mitochondrial proteome reconstruction across eukaryotes.

Mitochondrial proteome reconstruction from eukaryotic sequence data typically relies on prediction of mitochondrial targeting signals (MTSs). However, MTS predictors are primarily trained on model organisms and may perform poorly in phylogenetically divergent lineages or in organisms with atypical or reduced targeting sequences. Accurate reconstruction therefore requires integration of complementary sources of evidence beyond targeting prediction alone. We developed Comprehensive Mitochondrial Reconstructor (CoMR), an integrative workflow that combines targeting prediction, curated homology searches, large-scale similarity searches, and automated phylogenetic analysis within a unified scoring framework. Benchmarking on the model yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae yielded strong discriminatory performance [receiver operating characteristic (ROC)-area under the curve (AUC) = 0.92], exceeding standalone prediction with TargetP2, a predictor of N-terminal targeting peptides (ROC-AUC = 0.72). In the divergent anaerobic protist Paratrimastix pyriformis, CoMR maintained robust performance (ROC-AUC = 0.86) validated with an experimental proteome despite extreme class imbalance, achieving a precision-recall AUC of 0.183 (~78-fold enrichment over random expectation and ~10-fold improvement over TargetP2). Ablation analyses demonstrate that predictive performance is robust to individual evidence-layer removal, while overlap analyses showed that homology-based searches recovered candidates missed by targeting predictors, particularly in P. pyriformis. Overall, CoMR improves mitochondrial proteome reconstruction over targeting prediction alone and provides a reproducible workflow for predicting mitochondrial and mitochondrion-related organelle protein repertoires across eukaryotes to aid investigations of organelle evolution and proteome reduction.

Proteome

Experimental Test of Evolutionary Safety of a CRISPR-Cas9 Gene-Drive Element.

CRISPR-Cas9 gene drives (CCGDs) are powerful tools for genetic control of wild populations, with applications from disease eradication to species conservation. However, Cas9 alone and in a complex with gRNA can cause double-stranded DNA breaks at off-target sites, which could increase the mutational load and lead to unintended loss-of-heterozygosity (LOH) events. These undesired effects raise potential concerns about the long-term evolutionary safety of CCGDs, but the magnitude of these effects is unknown. To measure how the presence of a CCGD or a Cas9 alone in the genome affects the rates of LOH events and de novo mutations, we carried out a mutation accumulation experiment in yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae. We found no detectable effects on the genome-wide rates of mutations or LOH events. Our power calculations suggest that CCGD or Cas9 affect these rates by less than 30%, which is much less than natural variation for these traits in yeast. A more detailed examination shows that CCGD or Cas9 may alter the lengths and genomic distributions of LOH events, but the statistical support for these effects is weak. Thus, our results demonstrate that CCGDs impose at most a weak additional mutational burden in the yeast model. Although mutagenic effects of gene drives need to be further evaluated in other systems, our results add credence to the proposition that the evolutionary risks posed by well designed gene drives are likely acceptable.

Journal Article

Mapping the transcriptional regulatory network of a fungal pathogen by exploiting transcription factor perturbation.

Cryptococcus neoformans is a deadly fungal pathogen. Upon entering a mammalian host, it deploys a voluminous polysaccharide capsule that is necessary for it to survive host defenses and maintain an infection. Capsule expansion is regulated transcriptionally, as deletion of many transcription factors (TFs) alters capsule. Thus, we set out to map the transcriptional regulatory network of C. neoformans - that is, to identify the TFs that directly regulate each gene in the genome. First, we carried out RNA-seq of 120 single-TF-deletion strains, together with wild-type controls. We then applied NetProphet3, a TF network mapping algorithm, to predict the direct functional targets of each TF. Unexpectedly, analysis of this network indicated that there are no TFs that primarily regulate genes involved in capsule formation. Rather, the TFs that play a role in deploying capsule also regulate many other genes and processes. Comparison to a TF network map we built for Saccharomyces cerevisiae, a distantly related model yeast, identified pairs of TFs that are functionally orthologous - that is, their targets are enriched for orthologous genes. In many cases, these pairs are different from the ones identified by sequence homology alone. We suggest that network analyses should be used to complement sequence comparison when searching for functionally orthologous transcription factors. Our network map can be searched and visualized at http://cryptococcus.net.

Journal Article

Comparison on the structure and transcriptional capability of growing phase and stationary yeast chromatin: a model for reversible gene activation.

We have compared the structure of intra-nuclear and isolated chromatin from logarithmically growing yeast cells to chromatin from cells which had entered the stationary phase and ceased growing. Both chromatins show a similar nucleosomal repeat pattern, 160 bp repeat size, with staphylococcal nuclease and similar variability in repeat sizes within the genome. DNase I produces the same ladder (less than 120 b) and a quite similar extended ladder (120-300 b) which shows that both chromatins have phased nucleosomes. However, the rate of DNase I digestion of growing phase is greater than in stationary. Functionally speaking, growing phase nuclei are 5-20 times as active in the rate of endogenous transcription (all three polymerases are involved). The transcriptional and DNase I susceptibility differences noted in nuclei are maintained in sucrose gradient isolated oligonucleosomes and mononucleosomes from the two states.

Amanitins

Fitting a model to the growth of yeast colonies.

When yeast cells reproduce, scars are left on the parent cell where the offspring has budded. Using a branching process model, it is possible to obtain the expectations of numbers of cells with 0, 1, 2, ... offspring. In this paper, theoretical results are tested against empirical data for three types of yeast cells. We examine the hypothesis that birth and death rates of cells with no previus offspring may differ from those of cells with one or more offspring. It is suggested that the oscillatory empricial results for the proportions of cells with 0, 1, 2, 3 and 4 offspring may be due to different mean budding times for these cells.

Models, Biological

Dominant NARS1 mutations causing axonal Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease expand NARS1-associated diseases.

Pathogenic variants in six aminoacyl-tRNA synthetase (ARS) genes are implicated in neurological disorders, most notably inherited peripheral neuropathies. ARSs are enzymes that charge tRNA molecules with cognate amino acids. Pathogenic variants in asparaginyl-tRNA synthetase (NARS1) cause a neurological phenotype combining developmental delay, ataxia and demyelinating peripheral neuropathy. NARS1 has not yet been linked to axonal Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease. Exome sequencing of patients with inherited peripheral neuropathies revealed three previously unreported heterozygous NARS1 variants in three families. Clinical and electrophysiological details were assessed. We further characterized all three variants in a yeast complementation model and used a knock-in mouse model to study variant p.Ser461Phe. All three variants (p.Met236del, p.Cys342Tyr and p.Ser461Phe) co-segregate with the sensorimotor axonal neuropathy phenotype. Yeast complementation assays show that none of the three NARS1 variants support wild-type yeast growth when tested in isolation (i.e. in the absence of a wild-type copy of NARS1), consistent with a loss-of-function effect. Similarly, the homozygous knock-in mouse model (p.Ser461Phe/Ser472Phe in mouse) also demonstrated loss-of-function characteristics. We present three previously unreported NARS1 variants segregating with a sensorimotor neuropathy phenotype in three families. Functional studies in yeast and mouse support variant pathogenicity. Thus, NARS1 is the seventh ARS implicated in dominant axonal Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease, further stressing that all dimeric ARSs should be evaluated for Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease.

Charcot–Marie–Tooth disease

Distribution of yeast fatty acid synthetase subunits: three-dimensional model of the enzyme.

Rabbit and goat antibodies against the isolated alpha and beta subunits of yeast fatty acid aynthetase were raised and characterized. The purified IgG fractions were studied as to their capability to precipitate their antigens and the holoenzyme and to inhibit the partial reactions involved in overall fatty acyl-CoA synthesis. The specificity of the antibodies was investigated by immunodiffusion and by immunotitration. Native enzyme was crosslinked with each of the antibodies, and dimeric and oligomeric groups of IgG-crosslinked fatty acid synthetase molecules were isolated by sucrose density gradient centrifugation. Electron microscopic investigation of the crosslinked material as well as other data led us to suggest a three-dimensional model of yeast fatty acid synthetase.

Antibody Specificity

Predicting dynamic expression patterns in budding yeast with a fungal DNA language model.

Predicting gene expression from DNA sequence remains challenging due to complex regulatory codes. We introduce a masked DNA language model pretrained on 165 fungal genomes closely related to budding yeast that captures conserved regulatory grammar. Fine-tuning the LM on yeast RNA-seq data-including high-resolution transcriptional regulator induction time courses generated in this study-yielded Shorkie, a model that substantially improves gene expression prediction compared to baselines trained without self-supervision. Shorkie identified canonical transcription factor (TF) binding motifs and tracked their usage across induction experiments. Furthermore, Shorkie accurately predicted variant effects, outperforming leading sequence-to-expression models in cis-eQTL classification and achieving high concordance with massively parallel reporter assays. Interpretability analyses revealed Shorkie's ability to resolve promoter dynamics, splicing signals, and temporal changes in regulatory motif usage. This framework demonstrates that evolutionary-scale pretraining combined with transfer learning substantially improves our ability to decode gene regulation from sequence, providing insights into noncoding variants and regulatory networks.

Journal Article

Binding of MgATP to yeast phosphofructokinase.

Binding of MgATP to yeast phosphofructokinase was investigated by the gel filtration equilibrium dialysis technique. Per subunit of yeast phosphofructokinase two molecules of MgATP are bound in the absence of fructose-6-phosphate, one to a high-affinity and one to a low-affinity site. The experimental data were compared with a kinetic model of yeast phosphofructokinase as described by Freyer et al. [3].

Adenosine Triphosphate

Cell cycle-dependent protein dynamics in budding yeast resolved by deconvolution of bulk proteomics.

The cell division cycle is characterised by oscillatory dynamics in regulatory mechanisms and biosynthesis, coordinated with genome replication and segregation. To understand these dynamics, quantitative cell cycle-dependent protein concentration data are essential. Unfortunately, accurately resolving cell cycle-dependent protein dynamics is challenging because single-cell proteomics is currently infeasible and bulk proteomics requires - inherently imperfect - cell synchronisation. Here, we developed a computational method to deconvolve cell cycle-dependent protein concentration dynamics and applied it to new budding yeast bulk proteome data. Key to this method was a yeast population model, parameterised with experimental cell cycle progression and volume growth data, for quantifying the desynchronisation in sampled populations. We performed deconvolution on 3272 proteins, using cross-validation to determine regularisation parameters, and identified 539 proteins with cell cycle-dependent dynamics. Many of these dynamics were consistent with known yeast biology and dynamic proteins were enriched for several metabolic process, extending previous observations and supporting the emerging picture of metabolic activity as varying substantially over cell cycle phases. We consider the generated cell cycle-resolved budding yeast proteome data a key resource.

Journal Article

Space-filling models of kinase clefts and conformation changes.

Space-filling models of yeast hexokinase, adenylate kinase, and phosphoglycerate kinase drawn by computer clearly portray the bilobal character of these phosphoryl transfer enzymes, and the deep cleft which is formed between the lobes. A dramatic conformational change occurs in hexokinase as glucose binds to the bottom of the cleft, which causes the two lobes of hexokinase to come together. A substrate-induced closing of the active site cleft is postulated to occur in other kinases as well. This change may provide a mechanism by which some of these enzymes reduce their inherent adenosine triphosphatase activity and could be a general requirement of the kinase reaction.

Adenylate Kinase

Cytochemical localization of catalase activity in methanol-grown Hansenula polymorpha.

The localization of peroxidase activity in methanol-grown cells of the yeast Hansenula polymorphia has been studied by a method based on cytochemical staining with diaminobenzidine (DAB). The oxidation product of DAB occurred in microbodies, which characteristically develop growth on or methanol, and in the intracristate space of the mitochondria. The staining of microbodies was H2O2 dependent, appeared to be optimal at pH 10.5, diminished below pH 10 and was inhibited by 20 mM 3-amino 1,2,4 triazole (AT). In contrast to these observations, the reaction in the mitochondria was not H2O2 dependent and not notably affected by differences in pH in the range of 8.5 to 10.5. Microbodies and mitochondria were also stained when H2O2 was replaced by methanol. Appropriate control experiments indicated that in this case methanol oxidase generated the H2O2 for the peroxidative conversion of DAB by catalase. These results suggest that catalase is located in the microbodies of methanol-grown yeasts. A model for a possible physiological function of the microbodies during growth on methanol is put forward.

3,3'-Diaminobenzidine