Open AccessExpression of the human tumor suppressor p53 induces cell death in P ichia pastoris
Author(s) -
AbdelmoulaSouissi Salma,
Mabrouk Imed,
Gargouri Ali,
MokdadGargouri Raja
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
fems yeast research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.991
H-Index - 92
eISSN - 1567-1364
pISSN - 1567-1356
DOI - 10.1111/j.1567-1364.2011.00758.x
Subject(s) - pichia pastoris , biology , recombinant dna , programmed cell death , heterologous , apoptosis , pichia , context (archaeology) , dna fragmentation , yeast , microbiology and biotechnology , heterologous expression , genetics , gene , paleontology
The human tumor suppressor p53 is known as guardian of genome because of its involvement in many signals related to cell life or death. In this work, we report that human p53 induces cell death in the yeast P ichia pastoris . We showed a growth inhibition effect, which increased with the p53 protein expression level in recombinant M ut s (methanol utilization slow) strain of P ichia . However, no effect of p53 was observed in recombinant strain of M ut + (methanol utilization plus) phenotype. Interestingly, human p53 induces cell death in recombinant strains M ut s with characteristic markers of apoptosis such as DNA fragmentation, exposure of phosphatidylserine, and reactive oxygen species generation. Taken together, our results strongly suggest that human p53 is biologically active in this heterologous context. Thus, we propose that P . pastoris could be a useful tool to better understand the biological function of human p53.