真菌中氧胁迫调控因子AP-1研究进展

氧化应激是细胞应激反应的一种,在所有生物中都是保守进化的。应激反应的调控包括转录、翻译和翻译后修饰,决定生物体是否适应、存活、或者死亡。酵母中b-ZIP型激活蛋白(Yap)家族包括8个成员,Yap1是酵母Yap家族中首先发现的成员,具有DNA结合结构域和转录激活活性,在细胞的氧化应激中发挥着必不可少的作用。在氧化压力下,Yap1的活性增加。本文对近年来AP-1转录因子在真菌中的主要研究进展进行了综述,重点介绍了AP-1作为主要的氧化应激调节器参与的生物学应激反应、致病性及产生真菌毒素等,并介绍了AP-1在铁代谢、钴毒性、DNA损伤、耐药性中的功能。     

The adaptive response of Saccharomyces cerevisiae to mercury exposure

The budding yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae has been shown to possess a number of discrete but overlapping adaptive stress responses. We show here that yeast has an adaptive stress response towards mercury and that this response overlaps to some extent with the H(2)O(2) and cadmium-inducible stress responses. Expression of the yeast GSH1 gene, encoding gamma-glutamylcysteine synthetase, is known to be regulated by hydrogen peroxide; in this study we show that expression of a GSH1-lacZ reporter gene is shown to be regulated by exposure to heavy metals, such as mercury and cadmium. Other redox-active metals, including copper and iron, were found not to induce GSH1 expression. We show that mercury-mediated regulation of the GSH1 gene is not by the same mechanism used by cadmium. Moreover, our experiments suggest the possibility that the oxidative stress produced by mercury exposure is similar to that produced by treatment with H(2)O(2), consistent with our finding that the Yap1 protein is also involved in the response of yeast towards mercury.     

Genome‐wide expression profiling of the osmoadaptation response of Debaryomyces hansenii

The euryhaline marine yeast Debaromyces hansenii is a model system for the study of processes related to osmoadaptation. In this study, microarray‐based gene expression analyses of the entire genome of D. hansenii was used to study its response to osmotic stress. Differential gene expression, compared to control, was examined at three time points (0.5, 3 and 6 h) after exposure of D. hansenii cultures to high salt concentration. Among the 1.72% of genes showing statistically significant differences in expression, only 65 genes displayed at least three‐fold increases in mRNA levels after treatment with 2 M NaCl. On the other hand, 44 genes showed three‐fold repression. Upregulated as well as the downregulated genes were grouped into functional categories to identify biochemical processes possibly affected by osmotic stress and involved in osmoadaptation. The observation that only a limited number of genes are upregulated in D. hansenii in response to osmotic stress supports the notion that D. hansenii is pre‐adapted to survive in extreme saline environments. In addition, since more than one‐half of the upregulated genes encode for ribosomal proteins, it is possible that a translational gene regulatory mechanism plays a key role in D. hansenii's osmoregulatory response. Validation studies for ENA1 and for hyphal wall/cell elongation protein genes, using real‐time PCR, confirmed patterns of gene expression observed in our microarray experiments. To our knowledge, this study is the first of its kind in this organism and provides the foundation for future molecular studies assessing the significance of the genes identified here in D. hansenii's osmoadaptation. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.