December 2022: Kupiec: Yeast has a "pH antenna"
Researchers from the laboratory of Prof. Martin Kupiec, Edmond J. Safra member, have discovered a new mechanism in the yeast S. cerevisiae by which glucose activates its fermentation to ethanol.
Researchers from the laboratory of Prof. Martin Kupiec, Edmond J. Safra member (Life Sciences) have discovered a new mechanism in the yeast S. cerevisiae by which glucose (the yeast’s preferred food) activates its fermentation to ethanol.
Glucose activates a plasma membrane proton pump that increases the alkalinity inside the cell. This is sensed by an “antenna” composed of a stretch of 14 histidines (an amino acid) at the beginning of the sequence of the sugar-metabolism regulatory protein Snf1/AMPK, which changes its 3D conformation and becomes inactive. When the glucose is exhausted the pump is turned off and the increasing intracellular acidity now switches Snf1/AMPK back on.
The research was conducted under the direction of Dr. Kobi Simpson-Lavy and published in iScience.
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