UDP-glycosyltransferases (UGTs) are an important group of enzymes that participate in phase II metabolism of xenobiotics and use the cofactor UDP-glucuronic acid for the production of glucuronides. When acting on molecules bearing a carboxylic acid they can form acyl glucuronides, a group of metabolites that has gained significant interest in recent years because of concerns about their potenti...

function Phase S. cerevisiae (Budding Yeast) S. pombe (fission Yeast) D. melanogaster (fruit fly)

Background: SAGA is a multiprotein complex that possesses histone acetyltransferase activity. Results: Fission yeast strains with deletions in the SAGA acetyltransferase subunit exhibited increased leucine uptake in a manner dependent on an amino acid permease gene. Conclusion: SAGA regulates amino acid uptake in fission yeast. Significance: Regulation of nutrient uptake by SAGA provides a pote...

BACKGROUND HIV-1 protease (PR) is an essential viral enzyme. Its primary function is to proteolyze the viral Gag-Pol polyprotein for production of viral enzymes and structural proteins and for maturation of infectious viral particles. Increasing evidence suggests that PR cleaves host cellular proteins. However, the nature of PR-host cellular protein interactions is elusive. This study aimed to ...

The nuclear lamina is an intermediate filament network that underlies the nuclear membrane in higher eukaryotic cells. During mitosis in higher eukaryotes, nuclear lamins are phosphorylated by a mitosis-specific kinase and this induces disassembly of the lamina structure. Recently, p34cdc2 protein kinase purified from starfish has been shown to induce phosphorylation of lamin proteins and disas...

Genetic interaction networks that underlie most human diseases are highly complex and poorly defined. Better-defined networks will allow identification of a greater number of therapeutic targets. Here we introduce our Yeast Augmented Network Analysis (YANA) approach and test it with the X-linked spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) disease gene UBA1. First, we express UBA1 and a mutant variant in fiss...

Nucleoside analogs are frequently used to label newly synthesized DNA. These analogs are toxic in many cells, with the exception of the budding yeast. We show that Schizosaccharomyces pombe behaves similarly to metazoans in response to analogs 5-bromo-2'-deoxyuridine (BrdU) and 5-ethynyl-2'-deoxyuridine (EdU). Incorporation causes DNA damage that activates the damage checkpoint kinase Chk1 and ...

TOR (target of rapamycin) signaling coordinates cell growth, metabolism, and cell division through tight control of signaling via two complexes, TORC1 and TORC2. Here, we show that fission yeast TOR kinases and mTOR are phosphorylated on an evolutionarily conserved residue of their ATP-binding domain. The Gad8 kinase (AKT homologue) phosphorylates fission yeast Tor1 at this threonine (T1972) to...

The core proteins of the spindle assembly checkpoint (SAC), Mads, Bubs, and Mps1, first identified in the budding yeast, are thought to be functionally and structurally conserved through evolution. We found that fission yeast Bub3 is dispensable for SAC, as bub3 null mutants blocked mitotic progression when spindle formation was disrupted. Consistently, the bub3 mutation only weakly affected th...