This Article Full Text (PDF) Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Reprints and Permissions Copyright Information Books from ASM Press MicrobeWorld Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Braus, G H Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Braus, G H

 Previous Article  |  Next Article 

Microbiol Mol Biol Rev. 1991 September; 55(3): 349-370

Aromatic amino acid biosynthesis in the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae: a model system for the regulation of a eukaryotic biosynthetic pathway.

Mikrobiologisches Institut, Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule Zürich, CH-8092, Switzerland.

SUMMARY

This review focuses on the gene-enzyme relationships and the regulation of different levels of the aromatic amino acid biosynthetic pathway in a simple eukaryotic system, the unicellular yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Most reactions of this branched pathway are common to all organisms which are able to synthesize tryptophan, phenylalanine, and tyrosine. The current knowledge about the two main control mechanisms of the yeast aromatic amino acid biosynthesis is reviewed. (i) At the transcriptional level, most structural genes are regulated by the transcriptional activator GCN4, the regulator of the general amino acid control network, which couples transcriptional derepression to amino acid starvation of numerous structural genes in multiple amino acid biosynthetic pathways. (ii) At the enzyme level, the carbon flow is controlled mainly by modulating the enzyme activities at the first step of the pathway and at the branch points by feedback action of the three aromatic amino acid end products. Implications of these findings for the relationship of S. cerevisiae to prokaryotic as well as to higher eukaryotic organisms and for general regulatory mechanisms occurring in a living cell such as initiation of transcription, enzyme regulation, and the regulation of a metabolic branch point are discussed.

This article has been cited by other articles:

• Varelas, X., Stuart, D., Ellison, M. J., Ptak, C. (2006). The Cdc34/SCF Ubiquitination Complex Mediates Saccharomyces cerevisiae Cell Wall Integrity. Genetics 174: 1825-1839 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
• Helmstaedt, K., Strittmatter, A., Lipscomb, W. N., Braus, G. H. (2005). From the Cover: Evolution of 3-deoxy-D-arabino-heptulosonate-7-phosphate synthase-encoding genes in the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 102: 9784-9789 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
• Du, M. X., Sim, J., Fang, L., Yin, Z., Koh, S., Stratton, J., Pons, J., Wang, J. J.-X., Carte, B. (2004). Identification of Novel Small-Molecule Inhibitors for Human Transketolase by High-Throughput Screening with Fluorescent Intensity (FLINT) Assay. J Biomol Screen 9: 427-433 [Abstract]  
• Valerius, O., Brendel, C., Wagner, C., Krappmann, S., Thoma, F., Braus, G. H. (2003). Nucleosome Position-Dependent and -Independent Activation of HIS7 Expression in Saccharomyces cerevisiae by Different Transcriptional Activators. Eukaryot Cell 2: 876-885 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
• Yu, Q., Qiu, R., Foland, T. B., Griesen, D., Galloway, C. S., Chiu, Y.-H., Sandmeier, J., Broach, J. R., Bi, X. (2003). Rap1p and other transcriptional regulators can function in defining distinct domains of gene expression. Nucleic Acids Res 31: 1224-1233 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
• Sousa, S., McLaughlin, M. M., Pereira, S. A., VanHorn, S., Knowlton, R., Brown, J. R., Nicholas, R. O., Livi, G. P. (2002). The ARO4 gene of Candida albicans encodes a tyrosine-sensitive DAHP synthase: evolution, functional conservation and phenotype of Aro3p-, Aro4p-deficient mutants. Microbiology 148: 1291-1303 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
• Hinnebusch, A. G., Natarajan, K. (2002). Gcn4p, a Master Regulator of Gene Expression, Is Controlled at Multiple Levels by Diverse Signals of Starvation and Stress. Eukaryot Cell 1: 22-32 [Full Text]  
• Guo, H., Cui, Q., Lipscomb, W. N., Karplus, M. (2001). Substrate conformational transitions in the active site of chorismate mutase: Their role in the catalytic mechanism. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 98: 9032-9037 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
• Natarajan, K., Meyer, M. R., Jackson, B. M., Slade, D., Roberts, C., Hinnebusch, A. G., Marton, M. J. (2001). Transcriptional Profiling Shows that Gcn4p Is a Master Regulator of Gene Expression during Amino Acid Starvation in Yeast. Mol. Cell. Biol. 21: 4347-4368 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
• Krappmann, S., Helmstaedt, K., Gerstberger, T., Eckert, S., Hoffmann, B., Hoppert, M., Schnappauf, G., Braus, G. H. (1999). The aroC Gene of Aspergillus nidulans Codes for a Monofunctional, Allosterically Regulated Chorismate Mutase. J. Biol. Chem. 274: 22275-22282 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
• Ma, J., Zheng, X., Schnappauf, G., Braus, G., Karplus, M., Lipscomb, W. N. (1998). Yeast chorismate mutase in the R state: Simulations of the active site. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 95: 14640-14645 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
• Schnappauf, G., Krappmann, S., Braus, G. H. (1998). Tyrosine and Tryptophan Act through the Same Binding Site at the Dimer Interface of Yeast Chorismate Mutase. J. Biol. Chem. 273: 17012-17017 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
• Schnappauf, G., Lipscomb, W. N., Braus, G. H. (1998). Separation of inhibition and activation of the allosteric yeast chorismate mutase. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 95: 2868-2873 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
• Krappmann, S., Lipscomb, W. N., Braus, G. H. (2000). Coevolution of transcriptional and allosteric regulation at the chorismate metabolic branch point of Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 97: 13585-13590 [Abstract] [Full Text]