Glucose and related sugars repress the transcription of genes encoding enzymes required for the utilization of alternative carbon sources; some of these genes are also repressed by other sugars such as galactose, and the process is known as catabolite repression. The different sugars produce signals which modify the conformation of certain proteins that, in turn, directly or through a regulatory cascade affect the expression of the genes subject to catabolite repression. These genes are not all controlled by a single set of regulatory proteins, but there are different circuits of repression for different groups of genes. However, the protein kinase Snf1/Cat1 is shared by the various circuits and is therefore a central element in the regulatory process. Snf1 is not operative in the presence of glucose, and preliminary evidence suggests that Snf1 is in a dephosphorylated state under these conditions. However, the enzymes that phosphorylate and dephosphorylate Snf1 have not been identified, and it is not known how the presence of glucose may affect their activity. What has been established is that Snf1 remains active in mutants lacking either the proteins Grr1/Cat80 or Hxk2 or the Glc7 complex, which functions as a protein phosphatase. One of the main roles of Snf1 is to relieve repression by the Mig1 complex, but it is also required for the operation of transcription factors such as Adr1 and possibly other factors that are still unidentified. Although our knowledge of catabolite repression is still very incomplete, it is possible in certain cases to propose a partial model of the way in which the different elements involved in catabolite repression may be integrated.

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Yeast Carbon Catabolite Repression

Glucose has dramatic effects on the regulation of carbon metabolism and on many other properties of yeast cells. Several sensing and signalling pathways are involved. For many years attention has focussed on the main glucose-repression pathway which is responsible for the downregulation of respiration, gluconeogenesis and the transport and catabolic capacity of alternative sugars during growth on glucose. The hexokinase 2- dependent glucose-sensing mechanism of this pathway is not well understood but the downstream part of the pathway has been elucidated in great detail. Two putative glucose sensors, the Snf3 and Rgt2 non-transporting glucose carrier homologs, control the expression of many functional glucose carriers. Recently, several new components of this glucose-induction pathway have been identified. The Ras-cAMP pathway controls a wide variety of cellular properties in correlation with cellular proliferation. Glucose is a potent activator of cAMP synthesis. In this case glucose sensing is carried out by two systems, a G-protein-coupled receptor system and a still elusive glucose-phosphorylation-dependent system. The understanding of glucose sensing and signalling in yeast has made dramatic advances in recent years and has become a strong paradigm for the elucidation of nutrient-sensing mechanisms in other eukaryotic organisms.

Glucose-sensing and -signalling mechanisms in yeast

Transport across the plasma membrane is the first, obligatory step of hexose utilization. In yeast cells the uptake of hexoses is mediated by a large family of related transporter proteins. In baker's yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae the genes of 20 different hexose transporter-related proteins have been identified. Six of these transmembrane proteins mediate the metabolically relevant uptake of glucose, fructose and mannose for growth, two others catalyze the transport of only small amounts of these sugars, one protein is a galactose transporter but also able to transport glucose, two transporters act as glucose sensors, two others are involved in the pleiotropic drug resistance process, and the functions of the remaining hexose transporter-related proteins are not yet known. The catabolic hexose transporters exhibit different affinities for their substrates, and expression of their corresponding genes is controlled by the glucose sensors according to the availability of carbon sources. In contrast, milk yeast Kluyveromyces lactis contains only a few different hexose transporters. Genes of other monosaccharide transporter-related proteins have been found in fission yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe and in the xylose-fermenting yeast Pichia stipitis. However, the molecular genetics of hexose transport in many other yeasts remains to be established. The further characterization of this multigene family of hexose transporters should help to elucidate the role of transport in yeast sugar metabolism.

The molecular genetics of hexose transport in yeasts

In Saccharomyces cerevisiae, there are a large number of genes (HXT1-HXT17/SNF3/RGT2) encoding putative hexose transporters which, together with a galactose permease gene (GAL2), belong to a superfamily of monosaccharide facilitator genes. We have performed a systematic analysis of the HXT1-7 and GAL2 genes and their function in hexose transport. Glucose uptake was below the detection level in the hxt1-7 null strain growing on maltose. Determination of the kinetic parameters of individual hexose transporter-related proteins (Hxtp) expressed in the hxt null background revealed Hxt1p and Hxt3p as low-affinity transporters (Km(glucose) = 50-100 mM), Hxt2p and Hxt4p as moderately low in affinity (Km(glucose) about 10 mM), and Hxt6p, Hxt7p as well as Gal2p as high-affinity transporters (Km(glucosse) = 1-2 mM). However, Hxt2p kinetics in cells grown on low glucose concentrations showed a high-affinity (Km = 1.5 mM) and a low-affinity component (Km = 60 mM). Furthermore, we investigated the involvement of glucose transport in glucose signalling. Glucose repression of MAL2, SUC2 and GAL1 was not dependent on a specific transporter but, instead, the strength of the repression signal was dependent on the level of expression, the properties of the individual transporters and the kind of sugar transported. The strength of the glucose repression signal correlated with the glucose consumption rates in the different strains, indicating that glucose transport limits the provision of a triggering signal rather then being directly involved in the triggering mechanism.

https://febs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/j.1432-1033.1997.00324.x

Kinetic characterization of individual hexose transporters of Saccharomyces cerevisiae and their relation to the triggering mechanisms of glucose repression.

Industrial cultivation media, such as molasses, wort, agricultural waste and lignocellulose hydrolysates, contain a mixture of metabolizable carbohydrates. These carbohydrates are taken up by cells in a certain order with intermittent lag phases due to a set of mechanisms controlled by glucose, referred to hereafter as glucose control. Thus, the presence or uptake of glucose has a negative impact upon the metabolism of other sugars. Glucose repression reduces the transcription rate of repressible genes, and is the most thoroughly investigated mechanism of glucose control (Fig. 1).

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Glucose control in Saccharomyces cerevisiae: the role of Mig1 in metabolic functions

The kinetics of glucose transport in a number of different mutants ofSaccharomyces cerevisiaewith multiple deletions in the glucose transporter gene family were determined. The deletions led to differences in maximal rate and affinity for glucose uptake by the cells, dependent on the growth conditions. At the same time, there were changes in glucose repression, as determined by expression of invertase activity. Only in the strain with genes HXT1-4 and SNF3 deleted but carrying HXT6/7 were glucose uptake kinetics and invertase activity independent of the presence or concentration of glucose in the growth medium. Some degree of glucose sensitivity was recovered if the SNF3 or HXT2 gene was present in the multiple-deletion background. It is hypothesized that during growth on glucose, both modulation of the kinetics of glucose uptake and derepression of invertase activity require the presence of more than one active gene of the glucose transporter family. Saccharomyces cerevisiae cells growing on glucose in batch culture exhibit an increase in affinity for glucose as the glucose in the medium is consumed, while the maximal rate of glucose transport under such conditions is constant (16). When cells growing on a high concentration of glucose (2%) are transferred to a medium containing a low concentration of glucose (0.1%), however, a similar increase in affinity for glucose is observed,buttheaffinitychangeisaccompaniedbyanincrease in the maximal rate of glucose uptake (2). This complex behaviorismostlikelytheresultofanumberoffactors,including

/pdf/glucose-sensing-and-signalling-properties-in-saccharomyces-o8atzuu4a3.pdf

J. Valkier

Papers

Glucose sensing and signalling properties in Saccharomyces cerevisiae require the presence of at least two members of the glucose transporter family.