Premium
Sterol metabolism and ERG2 gene regulation in the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae
Author(s) -
Soustre Isabelle,
Dupuy Pascal-Henry,
Silve Sandra,
Karst Francis,
Loison Gérard
Publication year - 2000
Publication title -
febs letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.593
H-Index - 257
eISSN - 1873-3468
pISSN - 0014-5793
DOI - 10.1016/s0014-5793(00)01300-4
Subject(s) - ergosterol , sterol , saccharomyces cerevisiae , biochemistry , yeast , mutant , auxotrophy , isomerase , squalene , biology , transcription (linguistics) , gene , chemistry , cholesterol , linguistics , philosophy
Certain exogenously‐supplied sterols, like ergost‐8‐enol, are efficiently converted into ergosterol in yeast. We have taken advantage of this property to study the regulation of the Δ8‐Δ7‐sterol isomerase‐encoding ERG2 gene in an ergosterol auxotrophic mutant devoid of squalene‐synthase activity. Ergosterol starvation leads to an 8–16‐fold increase in ERG2 gene expression. Such an increase was also observed in wild‐type cells either grown anaerobically or treated with SR31747A a sterol isomerase inhibitor. Exogenously‐supplied zymosterol is entirely transformed into ergosterol, which represses ERG2 transcription. By contrast, exogenously‐supplied ergosterol has little or no effect on ERG2 transcription.