Pradimicin-resistance of yeast is caused by a point mutation of the histidine-containing phosphotransfer protein Ypd1

Pradimicin is an antifungal antibiotic which induces apoptosis like cell death in the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Pradimicin-resistant mutants were isolated from the S. cerevisiae and the mutation points were analyzed. A point mutation of YPD1 that led to a substitution of the 74th glycine (Gly74) to cysteine (Cys) was identified in a mutant strain NH1. In S. cerevisiae, Ypd1, transfers a phosphoryl group from the sensor kinase Sln1 to the response regulator Ssk1 which regulates a downstream MAP kinase in response to hyperosmotic stress. Gly74 is located in a three-residue reverse turn domain that connects two alpha-helices, one of which contains a histidine residue which is phosphorylated. In the reverse turn, glycine (relative position +10 to the active-site histidine) is highly conserved in Ypd1 and other histidine-containing phosphotransfer proteins. It was therefore suggested that the substitution of Gly74 to Cys altered the Ypd1 structure, which resulted in the resistance to pradimicin.