A novel role for Bsd2 in the resistance of yeast to adriamycin.

In a search for undiscovered mechanisms of resistance to adriamycin, we screened a genomic library derived from Saccharomyces cerevisiae for genes related to adriamycin resistance. To our surprise, we found that overexpression of BSD2 rendered yeast cells resistant to adriamycin. Downregulation of the metal transporters Smf1 and Smf2 is the only activity of Bsd2 reported to date, and Bsd2 deficiency increases intracellular levels of Smf1 and Smf2. SMF2-disrupted cells exhibited significantly greater resistance to adriamycin, whereas the resistance of SMF1-disrupted cells was only slightly improved. The sensitivity of the SMF1- and SMF2-disrupted yeast cell line overexpressing BSD2 was almost the same as that of the BSD2-overexpressing parental yeast cell. Thus the overexpression of BSD2 and the disruption of SMF1 and SMF2 might be involved in the same mechanism that confers resistance to adriamycin. Although both SMF1- and SMF2-disrupted cells were very sensitive to EGTA, overexpression of BSD2 had little or no effect on sensitivity to EGTA. However, a partial decrease in the intracellular level of FLAG-Smf2 was observed by overexpression of BSD2. Thus, the resistance to adriamycin acquired by overexpression of BSD2 might be partially explained by down-regulation of Smf2, but in addition to Smf2, other as of yet unidentified targets of Bsd2 must also be responsible for the resistance.