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Query: UMLS:C0038187 (starvation)
24,951 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

The remodeling of the promoter chromatin structure is a key event for the induction of the PHO5 gene. Two DNA-binding proteins Pho2 and Pho4 are critical for this step. We found that the NuA4 histone acetyltransferase complex is essential for PHO5 transcriptional induction without affecting Pho4 translocation upon phosphate starvation. Our data also indicate that NuA4 is critical for the chromatin remodeling event that occurs over the PHO5 promoter prior to activation. Using Chromatin IP analysis, we found that Esa1-dependent histone H4 acetylation at the PHO5 promoter correlates with specific recruitment of the NuA4 complex to this locus under repressing conditions. We demonstrate that the homeodomain transcriptional activator Pho2 is responsible for this recruitment in vivo and interacts directly with the NuA4 complex. Finally, we show that Pho4 is unable to bind the PHO5 promoter without prior action of NuA4. These results indicate that, before induction, NuA4 complex recruitment by Pho2 is an essential event that presets the PHO5 promoter for subsequent binding by Pho4, chromatin remodeling and transcription.
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PMID:Recruitment of the NuA4 complex poises the PHO5 promoter for chromatin remodeling and activation. 1517 50

Borrelia burgdorferi, the Lyme disease spirochete, undergoes dramatic changes in antigenic composition as it cycles between its arthropod and mammalian hosts. A growing body of evidence suggests that these changes reflect, at least in part, the need for spirochetes to adapt to the physiological stresses imposed by abrupt changes in environmental conditions and nutrient availability. In many microorganisms, global responses are mediated by master regulators such as alternative sigma factors, with Escherichia coli RpoS (sigmaS) serving as a prototype. The importance of this transcriptional activator in other bacteria, coupled with the report by Hubner et al. (A. Hubner, X. Yang, D. M. Nolen, T. G. Popova, F. C. Cabello, and M. V. Norgard, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 98:12724-12729, 2001) demonstrating that the borrelial RpoS ortholog controls expression of OspC and decorin-binding protein A (DbpA), prompted us to examine more closely the roles of RpoS-dependent and -independent differential gene expression in physiological adaptation by the Lyme disease spirochete. We observed that B. burgdorferi rpoS (rpoSBb) was induced following temperature shift and transcript levels were further enhanced by reduced pH (pH 6.8). Using quantitative real-time reverse transcription-PCR (RT-PCR), we demonstrated that, in contrast to its ortholog (rpoSEc) in Escherichia coli, rpoSBb was expressed at significant levels in B. burgdorferi throughout all phases of growth following temperature shift. By comparing a B. burgdorferi strain 297 rpoSBb mutant to its wild-type counterpart, we determined that RpoSBb was not required for survival following exposure to a wide range of environmental stresses (i.e., temperature shift, serum starvation, increased osmolality, reactive oxygen intermediates, and increased or reduced oxygen tension), although the mutant was more sensitive to extremes of pH. While B. burgdorferi strains lacking RpoS were able to survive within intraperitoneal dialysis membrane chambers at a level equivalent to that of the wild type, they were avirulent in mice. Lastly, RT-PCR analysis of the ospE-ospF-elp paralogous lipoprotein families complements earlier findings that many temperature-inducible borrelial loci are controlled in an RpoSBb-independent manner. Together, these data point to fundamental differences between the role(s) of RpoS in B. burgdorferi and that in E. coli. Rather than functioning as a master regulator, RpoSBb appears to serve as a stress-responsive activator of a subset of virulence determinants that, together with the RpoS-independent, differentially expressed regulon, encompass the spirochete's genetic programs required for mammalian host adaptation.
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PMID:RpoS is not central to the general stress response in Borrelia burgdorferi but does control expression of one or more essential virulence determinants. 1550 74

The Snf1/AMP-activated protein kinases play a key role in stress responses of eukaryotic cells. In the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae Snf1 is regulated by glucose depletion, which triggers its phosphorylation at Thr210 and concomitant increase in activity. Activated yeast Snf1 is required for the metabolic changes allowing starvation tolerance and utilization of alternative carbon sources. We now report a function for the non-activated form of Snf1: the regulation of the Trk high-affinity potassium transporter, encoded by the TRK1 and TRK2 genes. A snf1Delta strain is hypersensitive in high-glucose medium to different toxic cations, suggesting a hyperpolarization of the plasma membrane driving increased cation uptake. This phenotype is suppressed by the TRK1 and HAL5 genes in high-copy number consistent with a defect in K(+) uptake mediated by the Trk system. Accordingly, Rb(+) uptake and intracellular K(+) measurements indicate that snf1Delta is unable to fully activate K(+) import. Genetic analysis suggests that the weak kinase activity of the non-phosphorylated form of Snf1 activates Trk in glucose-metabolizing yeast cells. The effect of Snf1 on Trk is probably indirect and could be mediated by the Sip4 transcriptional activator.
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PMID:A role for the non-phosphorylated form of yeast Snf1: tolerance to toxic cations and activation of potassium transport. 1564 68

Stringent starvation protein A (SspA) of Escherichia coli is an RNA polymerase-associated transcriptional activator for the lytic development of phage P1 and is essential for stationary phase-induced acid tolerance of E. coli. We report the crystal structure of Yersinia pestis SspA, which is 83% identical to E. coli SspA in amino acid sequence and is functionally complementary in supporting the lytic growth of phage P1 and acid resistance of an E. coli sspA mutant. The structure reveals that SspA assumes the characteristic fold of glutathione S-transferase (GST). However, SspA lacks GST activity and does not bind glutathione. Three regions of SspA are flexible, the N and C termini and the alpha2-helix. The structure also reveals a conserved surface-exposed pocket composed of residues from a loop between helices alpha3 and alpha4. The functional roles of these structural features were investigated by assessing the ability of deletion and site-directed mutants to confer acid resistance of E. coli and to activate transcription from a phage P1 late promoter, thereby supporting the lytic growth of phage P1. The results indicate that the flexible regions are not critical for SspA function, whereas the surface pocket is important for both transcriptional activation of the phage P1 late promoter and acid resistance of E. coli. The size, shape, and property of the pocket suggest that it mediates protein-protein interactions. SspA orthologs from Y. pestis, Vibrio cholerae, and Pseudomonas aeruginosa are all functional in acid resistance of E. coli, whereas only Y. pestis SspA supports phage P1 growth.
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PMID:Structural basis for the function of stringent starvation protein a as a transcription factor. 1573 7

The ability to adhere to other cells is one of the most prominent determinants of fungal pathogenicity. Thus, adherence of fungi to human tissues or plastics triggers hospital-acquired fungal infections, which are an increasing clinical problem, especially in immunocompromised persons. In the model fungus Saccharomyces cerevisiae adhesion can be induced by starvation for amino acids, and depends on the transcriptional activator of the general amino acid control system, Gcn4p. However, not much is known about the transcriptional program that mediates adhesive growth under such conditions. In this study, we present a genome-wide transcriptional analysis of Sigma1278b yeast cells that were subjected to adhesion-inducing conditions imposed by amino acid starvation. Twenty-two novel genes were identified as inducible by amino acid starvation; 72 genes belonging to different functional groups, which were not previously known to be regulated by Gcn4p, require Gcn4p for full transcriptional induction under adhesion-inducing conditions. In addition, several genes were identified in Sigma1278b cells that were inducible by amino acid starvation in a Gcn4p-independent manner. Our data suggest that adhesion of yeast cells induced by amino acid starvation is regulated by a complex, Sigma1278b-specific transcriptional response.
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PMID:Transcriptional profiling of Saccharomyces cerevisiae cells under adhesion-inducing conditions. 1584 68

Plants sense phosphate (Pi) deficiency and initiate signaling that controls adaptive responses necessary for Pi acquisition. Herein, evidence establishes that AtSIZ1 is a plant small ubiquitin-like modifier (SUMO) E3 ligase and is a focal controller of Pi starvation-dependent responses. T-DNA insertional mutated alleles of AtSIZ1 (At5g60410) cause Arabidopsis to exhibit exaggerated prototypical Pi starvation responses, including cessation of primary root growth, extensive lateral root and root hair development, increase in root/shoot mass ratio, and greater anthocyanin accumulation, even though intracellular Pi levels in siz1 plants were similar to wild type. AtSIZ1 has SUMO E3 ligase activity in vitro, and immunoblot analysis revealed that the protein sumoylation profile is impaired in siz1 plants. AtSIZ1-GFP was localized to nuclear foci. Steadystate transcript abundances of Pi starvation-responsive genes AtPT2, AtPS2, and AtPS3 were moderate but clearly greater in siz1 seedlings than in wild type, where Pi is sufficient. Pi starvation induced the expression of these genes to the same extent in siz1 and wild-type seedlings. However, two other Pi starvation-responsive genes, AtIPS1 and AtRNS1, are induced more slowly in siz1 seedlings by Pi limitation. PHR1, a MYB transcriptional activator of AtIPS1 and AtRNS1, is an AtSIZ1 sumoylation target. These results indicate that AtSIZ1 is a SUMO E3 ligase and that sumoylation is a control mechanism that acts both negatively and positively on different Pi deficiency responses.
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PMID:The Arabidopsis SUMO E3 ligase SIZ1 controls phosphate deficiency responses. 1589 20

Genetic screens in Saccharomyces cerevisiae have identified the roles of ribosome components, tRNAs and translation factors in translational fidelity. These screens rely on the suppression of altered start codons, nonsense codons or frameshift mutations in genes involved in amino acid or nucleotide metabolism. Many of these genes are regulated by the General Amino Acid Control (GAAC) pathway. Upon amino acid starvation, the kinase GCN2 induces the GAAC cascade via increased translation of the transcriptional activator GCN4 controlled by upstream open reading frames (uORFs). Overexpression of the GCN2 or GCN4 genes enhances the sensitivity of translation fidelity assays that utilize genes regulated by GCN4, such as the suppression of a +1 insertion by S.cerevisiae translation elongation factor 1A (eEF1A) mutants. Paromomycin and the prion [PSI+], which reduce translational fidelity, do not increase GCN4 expression to induce the suppression phenotype and in fact reduce derepression. eEF1A mutations that reduce translation, however, reduce expression of GCN4 under non-starvation conditions. These eEF1A mutants also reduce HIS4 mRNA expression. Taken together, this system improves in vivo strategies for the analysis of translational fidelity and further provides new information on the interplay among translation fidelity, altered elongation and translational control via uORFs.
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PMID:Interplay between GCN2 and GCN4 expression, translation elongation factor 1 mutations and translational fidelity in yeast. 1610 Mar 80

Ty1 retrotransposons of the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae are activated by different kinds of stress. Here we show that Ty1 transcription is stimulated under severe adenine starvation conditions. The Bas1 transcriptional activator, responsible for the induction of genes of the de novo AMP biosynthesis pathway (ADE) in the absence of adenine, is not involved in this response. Activation occurs mainly on Ty1 elements, whose expression is normally repressed by chromatin and is suppressed in a hta1-htb1Delta mutant that alters chromatin structure. Activation is also abolished in a snf2Delta mutant. Several regions of the Ty1 promoter are necessary to achieve full activation, suggesting that full integrity of the promoter sequences might be important for activation. Together, these observations are consistent with a model in which the activation mechanism involves chromatin remodeling at Ty1 promoters. The consequence of Ty1 transcriptional activation in response to adenine starvation is an increase in Ty1 cDNA levels and a relief of Ty1 dormancy. The retrotransposition of four native Ty1 elements increases in proportion to their increase in transcription. Implications for the regulation of Ty1 mobility by changes in Ty1 mRNA levels are discussed.
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PMID:Severe adenine starvation activates Ty1 transcription and retrotransposition in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. 1610 95

Candida albicans is an opportunistic human pathogen that can sense environmental changes and respond by altering its cell morphology and physiology. A number of environmental factors have been shown to influence this dimorphic transition, including pH, starvation, serum, and amino acids. In this report, we investigate the function of the C. albicans CCAAT-binding factor. In Saccharomyces cerevisiae, this heterooligomeric transcriptional activator stimulates the expression of genes that encode proteins involved in respiration. To examine the function of this transcription factor in C. albicans, we cloned CaHAP5 and generated a hap5delta/hap5delta mutant of C. albicans. Using mobility shift studies, we identified four separate complexes from C. albicans cell extracts whose DNA-binding activities were abolished in the hap5delta/hap5delta mutant, suggesting that they represented sequence-specific CCAAT-binding complexes. We found that the C. albicans hap5delta homozygote was defective in hyphal development under a variety of conditions, and the mutant displayed a carbon source-dependent "hyperfilamentation" phenotype under certain growth conditions. In addition, the mRNA levels for two enzymes involved in respiration, encoded by COX5 and CYC1, were overexpressed in the hap5delta/hap5delta mutant when grown in medium containing amino acids as the sole carbon and nitrogen source. Thus, the C. albicans CCAAT-binding factor appeared to function as a repressor of genes encoding mitochondrial electron transport components, in contrast to its activator function in S. cerevisiae. These data provide the first evidence that the CCAAT-binding factor can act as a transcriptional repressor and raise new and interesting questions about how carbon metabolism is regulated in this opportunistic human pathogen.
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PMID:Novel regulatory function for the CCAAT-binding factor in Candida albicans. 1621 74

Growth of Sinorhizobium meliloti under Pi-limiting conditions induced expression of the major H2O2-inducible catalase (HPII) gene (katA) in this organism. This transcription required the PhoB transcriptional regulator and initiated from a promoter that was distinct from the OxyR-dependent promoter which activates katA transcription in response to addition of H2O2. In N2-fixing root nodules, katA was transcribed from the OxyR- and not the PhoB-dependent promoter. This is consistent with the accumulation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) in nodules and also indicates that bacteroids within nodules are not Pi-limited. Pi-limited growth also induced expression of catalase genes in Agrobacterium tumefaciens (HPI) and Pseudomonas aeruginosa (PA4236-HPI) suggesting that this may be a widespread phenomenon. The response is not a general stress response as in both S. meliloti and P. aeruginosa increased transcription is mediated by the phosphate responsive transcriptional activator PhoB. The phenotypic consequences of this response were demonstrated in S. meliloti by the dramatic increase in H2O2 resistance of wild type but not phoB mutant cells upon growth in Pi-limiting media. Our data indicate that in S. meliloti, katA and other genes whose products are involved in protection from oxidative stress are induced upon Pi-limitation. These observations suggest that as part of the response to Pi-limitation, S. meliloti, P. aeruginosa and A. tumefaciens have evolved a capacity to increase their resistance to oxidative stress. Whether this capacity evolved because Pi-starved cells generate more ROS or whether the physiological changes that occur in the cells in response to Pi-starvation render them more sensitive to ROS remains to be established.
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PMID:Phosphate limitation induces catalase expression in Sinorhizobium meliloti, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Agrobacterium tumefaciens. 1623 34


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