Reference - PMID:11872168 - Genes for a nuclease and a protease are involved in the drastic decrease in cellular RNA amount in fission yeast cells during nitrogen starvation.

Reference summary

PubMed ID

PMID:11872168

Title

Genes for a nuclease and a protease are involved in the drastic decrease in cellular RNA amount in fission yeast cells during nitrogen starvation.

Authors

Nakashima A, Yoshida M, Nakayama K, Kato-Furuno A, Ueno M, Ushimaru T, Uritani M

Citation

J Biochem 2002 Mar;131(3):391-8

Publication year

2002

Abstract

Cellular RNA in Schizosaccharomyces pombe cells drastically decreases in amount during nitrogen starvation. Previously, we found and purified a soluble RNA-degrading enzyme whose activity drastically increased in the cells of S. pombe undergoing nitrogen starvation. The enzyme was a nuclease encoded by pnu1(+). In this study, the increase in the RNA-degrading activity and the decrease in cellular RNA level are examined in a null-mutant of pnu1(+) (pnu1Delta). During nitrogen starvation, wild-type cells show an apparent increase in RNA-degrading activity, whereas the pnu1Delta cells do not. The wild-type cells show a drastic decrease in cellular RNA amount, whereas the pnu1Delta cells show only a slight decrease. These results suggest that Pnu1 nuclease is implicated in the decrease in cellular RNA amount during nitrogen starvation, probably via the RNA-degrading activity. The increase in the RNA-degrading activity is independent of both the Wis1 stress-activated MAP kinase cascade and Tor1 signaling pathway, but it is strongly dependent on isp6(+), a gene for a possible protease, whose expression is induced during nitrogen starvation. A disruption mutant for isp6(+) (isp6Delta) is deficient in both the increase in the RNA-degrading activity and the drastic decrease in the cellular RNA amount during nitrogen starvation, which suggests that isp6(+) is involved in the RNA degradation via regulating the RNA-degrading activity of Pnu1.

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