At acidic pH, the diminished hypoxic expression of the SRP1/TIR1 yeast gene depends on the GPA2-cAMP and HOG pathways

The hypoxic SRP1/TIR1 gene encodes a stress-response cell wall mannoprotein, which is shown to be necessary for yeast growth at acidic pH in the presence of sodium dodecyl sulfate. However, the hypoxic expression of SRP1 is shown to be downregulated at acidic pH. The stress-responsive HOG pathway appeared necessary to maintain hypoxic SRP1 expression, but only at acidic pH. However, unlike known HOG pathway-dependent genes, SRP1 was under positive cAMP control and was positively modulated by protein kinase A at neutral and acidic pH. In addition, the HOG-independent hypoxic HEM13 gene was also positively regulated by cAMP levels. Therefore, the positive cAMP control of the hypoxic SRP1 and HEM13 genes was uncoupled from the HOG pathway. Surprisingly, this positive cAMP control was found to be mediated by GPA2 but not by RAS2, so the Gpa2p requirement appears critical at acidic pH. Although RAS2 is not involved in the regulation of SRP1 expression, the guanine nucleotide exchange factor Cdc25, which is known to control the GTP/GDP ratio on the Ras proteins, was nevertheless required for hypoxic SRP1 expression. Furthermore, the Ras proteins did not compensate for Gpa2p requirement in a Delta gpa2 mutated strain. These results suggest that the Cdc25 factor might also control Gpa2p. (C) 2000 Editions scientifiques et medicales Elsevier SAS.