Characterization of genome-reduced fission yeast strains.

The Schizosaccharomyces pombe genome is one of the smallest among the free-living eukaryotes. We further reduced the S. pombe gene number by large-scale gene deletion to identify a minimal gene set required for growth under laboratory conditions.

Ethanol-inducible gene expression using gld1 (+) promoter in the fission yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe.

In the fission yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe, the gld1 (+) gene encoding glycerol dehydrogenase is repressed by glucose and induced by ethanol and 1-propanol. The promoter region of gld1 (+) was cloned into a multicopy vector designated as pEG1 for evaluation as an ethanol-inducible expression vector using EGFP as a model heterologous protein. Expression of EGFP was repressed in the presence of high glucose and induced in the presence of ethanol, low-glucose, and 1-propanol in the absence of glucose.

Ght2⁺ is required for UDP-galactose synthesis from extracellular galactose by Schizosaccharomyces pombe.

Schizosaccharomyces pombe has eight hexose transporter genes, ght1 (+) to ght8 (+). Here we report that ght2 (+), which is highly expressed in the presence of glucose, is essential for UDP-galactose synthesis from extracellular galactose when cells grow on glucose. The galactosylation defect of a uge1Δ mutant defective in synthesis of UDP-galactose from glucose was suppressed in galactose-containing medium, but disruption of ght2 (+) in the uge1Δ mutant reversed suppression of the galactosylation defect.

Promotion of glycerol utilization using ethanol and 1-propanol in Schizosaccharomyces pombe.

The fission yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe does not grow in media containing glycerol as a sole carbon source but uses glycerol in the presence of ethanol. Ethanol, but not glycerol, triggered upregulation of gld1+ and fbp1+ during glucose starvation even though gld1+ and fbp1+ are essential for growth on glycerol. This upregulation occurred at a very low concentration of ethanol.

The Ubiquitin ligase Ubr11 is essential for oligopeptide utilization in the fission yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe.

Uptake of extracellular oligopeptides in yeast is mediated mainly by specific transporters of the peptide transporter (PTR) and oligopeptide transporter (OPT) families. Here, we investigated the role of potential peptide transporters in the yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe. Utilization of naturally occurring dipeptides required only Ptr2/SPBC13A2.