Small toxic protein encoded on chromosome VII of Saccharomyces cerevisiae

PLoS One. 2015 Mar 17;10(3):e0120678. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0120678. eCollection 2015.

Abstract

In a previous study, we found an unknown element that caused growth inhibition after its copy number increased in the 3' region of DIE2 in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. In this study, we further identified this element and observed that overexpression of a small protein (sORF2) of 57 amino acids encoded in this region caused growth inhibition. The transcriptional response and multicopy suppression of the growth inhibition caused by sORF2 overexpression suggest that sORF2 overexpression inhibits the ergosterol biosynthetic pathway. sORF2 was not required in the normal growth of S. cerevisiae, and not conserved in related yeast species including S. paradoxus. Thus, sORF2 (designated as OTO1) is an orphan ORF that determines the specificity of this species.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Chromosomes, Fungal / genetics*
  • Chromosomes, Fungal / metabolism
  • Open Reading Frames*
  • Saccharomyces cerevisiae / genetics*
  • Saccharomyces cerevisiae / metabolism
  • Saccharomyces cerevisiae Proteins / genetics*
  • Saccharomyces cerevisiae Proteins / metabolism

Substances

  • Saccharomyces cerevisiae Proteins

Associated data

  • SRA/DRA002585

Grants and funding

This research was supported partly by MEXT KAKENHI (B, Challenging Exploratory Research, and 221S0002), the Asahi Glass Foundation, and grants-in-aid for strategic research promotion from Okayama University. The funders had no role in the study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.