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Glucose-induced inactivation of the gluconeogenetic enzymes fructose-1,6-bisphosphatase, cytoplasmic malate dehydrogenase and phosphoenolpyruvate carboxykinase was tested in yeast mutants defective in adenylate cyclase (cyr1 mutation) and in the cAMP-binding subunit of cAMP-dependent protein kinase (bcy1 mutation). In the mutant AM7-11D (cyr1 mutation), glucose-induced cAMP overshoot was absent, and no significant inactivation of the gluconeogenetic enzymes was detected, thus supporting the role of cAMP in the process. Moreover, in the mutant AM9-8B (bcy1 mutation), no cAMP-dependent protein kinase activity was evidenced, and, in addition, a normal inactivation pattern was observed, thus indicating that other mechanisms evoked by glucose might be required in the process. In the double mutant AM7-11DR-4 (cyr1 bcy1 mutations), no inactivating effect was triggered by the sugar: this suggests that cAMP exerts some additional effect on the process, besides the activation of cAMP-dependent protein kinase. Furthermore, in AM7-11D, extracellular cAMP triggered about 50% of inactivation of fructose-1,6-bisphosphatase; this effect was largely reversed in acetate medium plus cycloheximide even after 150 min of incubation. However, an extensive and essentially irreversible inactivation was evidenced in the presence of glucose plus cAMP, whereas glucose alone was only slightly effective. Therefore, the reversible effect of camp, which probably corresponds to enzyme phosphorylation, seems to be required for the irreversible, probably proteolytic, glucose-stimulated inactivation of this enzyme. Cytoplasmic malate dehydrogenase and phosphoenolpyruvate carboxykinase in AM7-11D were also inactivated by cAMP, and much more by glucose plus camp, whereas glucose was practically ineffective. However, reversibility of the effect was not detected, and, in addition, no phosphorylation of phosphoenolpyruvate carboxykinase could be evidenced. Therefore, the sugar quite probably stimulates proteolysis of these enzymes, but the mechanism of cAMP in their degradation has still to be defined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The mechanism of catabolite inactivation of three gluconeogenetic enzymes, fructose-1,6-bisphosphatase. cytoplasmic malate dehydrogenase and phosphoeno/pyruvate carboxykinase, has been studied in the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae. The glucose-induced inactivation of the three enzymes is remarkably retarded by preincubation of the cells with different caffeine concentrations; however, a full conservation of activity has never been obtained, even at the highest drug concentration. Caffeine modifies the metabolic effects produced in the yeast cell by exposure to glucose. It reduces the consumption rate of glucose; changes the glycolytic intermediate pattern, giving rise to a crossover point at the level of the phosphofructokinase/fructose-bisphosphatase cycle; and increases the ATP level and the energy charge. Moreover, it substantially reduces the peak of intracellular cAMP content that immediately follows glucose entry; the magnitude of this effect is dependent on the drug concentration. The effect on the change of intracellular cAMP level appears, among all metabolic effects determined by caffeine, the only plausible one to explain the interference with catabolite inactivation of enzymes. Actually a strong negative correlation between residual activity of each of the three investigated enzymes and intracellular cAMP level has been demonstrated. The existence of a common mechanism of action of cAMP, as the mediating factor for catabolite inactivation of all three enzymes, is proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A purification procedure consisting of DEAE-Sephacel chromatography, heparin-Sepharose CL-6B chromatography and Mono-S chromatography led to the isolation of three proteins endowed with RNase activity from the thermoacidophilic archaebacterium Sulfolobus solfataricus. They were referred to as p1, p2 and p3, according to their elution order from the Mono-S column. Complete amino acid sequence of p2 and partial sequence of p3 displayed high sequence similarity to the 7-kDa DNA-binding proteins previously isolated in Sulfolobus strains [Choli, T., Wittman-Liebold, B. & Reinhardt, R. (1988) J. Biol. Chem. 263, 7087-7093]. The molecular mass of p2, calculated from sequence data, was 7.02 kDa, which compares fairly well with the value of 7.4 kDa determined by SDS/PAGE. Gel filtration of the molecule under native conditions displayed, however, a largely prevailing form with an assessed molecular mass of 13.0 kDa, which points to a dimeric structure. Kinetic characterization of protein p2 showed a broad pH optimum in the range 6.7 - 7.6 using yeast RNA as substrate; also, it was shown that activity was unaffected by EDTA, Mg2+ and phosphate. The enzyme did not accept as substrate any homopolyribonucleotide, which points to a rather narrow substrate specificity. This was also confirmed by incubating p2 with tRNAfMet Met (fMet, N-formylmethionine) from Escherichia coli: the hydrolysis products were thus identified as 3'-phosphooligonucleotides. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]