The synthesis of cadystins, heavy metal chelating peptides, is induced in the fission yeast by wounds of the cell wall or by incubation with chitosan.
It has been shown that heavy metal administration induced the synthesis of cadystins, the small metal chelating peptide with the general structure of (gamma-glu-cys)n-gly, in the fission yeast and in plants. Besides heavy metals, wounds to the cell surface or the incubation with chitosan induced the cadystin synthesis in the fission yeast. Under these induction conditions, the membrane permeability of the fission yeast significantly increased suggesting the structural alteration of the membrane. In these induction, the synthesized cadystins formed complexes with the cellular zinc ions together with or without glutathione.
Hayashi Y, Morikawa S, Kawabata M, Hotta Y