Inorganic polyphosphate (polyP) is a ubiquitous molecule found across all domains of life. Although implicated in diverse cellular processes, including phosphate storage, stress responses, and pathogenicity, loss of polyP synthesis typically causes only mild growth defects. Here, we demonstrate an essential physiological role for polyP synthesis during recovery from phosphate starvation, when cells transition from phosphate-limited to phosphate-replete conditions. Using a comprehensive transposon sequencing approach in Caulobacter crescentus, we identify genes conferring a fitness advantage during starvation for carbon, nitrogen, or phosphate and during subsequent recovery. We find that ppk1, encoding the polyphosphate kinase responsible for polyP synthesis, is specifically required for recovery from phosphate starvation but dispensable for entry into starvation, a result confirmed with a ppk1 deletion mutant. Mutations that reduce phosphate uptake via the phosphate-specific transport system suppress the requirement for ppk1, indicating that polyP synthesis prevents toxic accumulation of intracellular inorganic phosphate (P_i) upon refeeding. Our findings further show that buffering intracellular P_i through polyP synthesis is critical for maintaining ATP homeostasis. Together, these results define a central role for polyP synthesis in regulating intracellular phosphate balance and ATP homeostasis, thereby facilitating adaptation to fluctuating nutrient conditions.

The Lon protease is widely conserved in both prokaryotic and eukaryotic organisms and fulfills important regulatory functions. Nevertheless, the number of identified Lon substrates is limited in most organisms, and the precise role of Lon in regulating these proteins is poorly understood. Here, we describe the α-proteobacterial general stress response sigma factor σ^T as a novel Lon substrate in Caulobacter crescentus. Based on previously published quantitative proteomics data, we find σ^T to be a promising putative Lon substrate and confirm a direct role of Lon in degrading σ^T. We show that Lon contributes to the downregulation of σ^T abundance under optimal conditions and during recovery from sucrose-induced osmotic stress. Furthermore, the presence of the Lon activity regulator LarA enhances Lon-mediated degradation of σ^T in vitro and reduces σ^T levels in vivo indicating a role of LarA in modulating Lon-mediated degradation of σ^T. Together, our results highlight the importance of Lon during the recovery phase following stress exposure by adjusting the concentrations of critical regulators of stress responses.

The Lon protease is a highly conserved protein degradation machine that has critical regulatory and protein quality control functions in cells from the three domains of life. Here, we report the discovery of a α-proteobacterial heat shock protein, LarA, that functions as a dedicated Lon regulator. We show that LarA accumulates at the onset of proteotoxic stress and allosterically activates Lon-catalysed degradation of a large group of substrates through a five amino acid sequence at its C-terminus. Further, we find that high levels of LarA cause growth inhibition in a Lon-dependent manner and that Lon-mediated degradation of LarA itself ensures low LarA levels in the absence of stress. We suggest that the temporal LarA-dependent activation of Lon helps to meet an increased proteolysis demand in response to protein unfolding stress. Our study defines a regulatory interaction of a conserved protease with a heat shock protein, serving as a paradigm of how protease activity can be tuned under changing environmental conditions.

The decision to initiate DNA replication is a critical step in the cell cycle of all organisms. In nearly all bacteria, replication initiation requires the activity of the conserved replication initiation protein DnaA. Due to its central role in cell cycle progression, DnaA activity must be precisely regulated. This review summarizes the current state of DnaA regulation in the asymmetrically dividing alpha-proteobacterium Caulobacter crescentus, an important model for bacterial cell cycle studies. Mechanisms will be discussed that regulate DnaA activity and abundance under optimal conditions and in coordination with the asymmetric Caulobacter cell cycle. Furthermore, we highlight recent findings of how regulated DnaA synthesis and degradation collaborate to adjust DnaA abundance under stress conditions. The mechanisms described provide important examples of how DNA replication is regulated in an a-proteobacterium and thus represent an important starting point for the study of DNA replication in many other bacteria. This article is part of a Special Issue entitled: Dynamic gene expression, edited by Prof. Patrick Viollier.

The Saccharomyces cerevisiae Ssy5 signaling protease is a core component of the plasma membrane (PM)-localized SPS (Ssy1-Ptr3-Ssy5) sensor. In response to extracellular amino acids, the SPS-sensor orchestrates the proteasomal degradation of the inhibitory Ssy5 prodomain. The unfettered catalytic (Cat)-domain cleaves latent transcription factors Stp1 and Stp2, freeing them from negative N-terminal regulatory domains. By studying the spatial and temporal constraints affecting the unfettered Cat-domain, we found that it can cleave substrates not associated with the PM; the Cat-domain efficiently cleaves Stp1 even when fused to the carboxy terminus of the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) membrane protein Shr3. The amino acid-induced cleavage of this synthetic membrane-anchored substrate occurs in a Delta tether strain lacking ER-PM junctions. We report that the bulk of the Cat-domain is soluble, exhibits a disperse intracellular distribution, and is subject to ubiquitylation. Cat-domain ubiquitylation is dependent on Ptr3 and the integral PM casein kinase I (Yck1/2). Time-course experiments reveal that the non-and ubiquitylated forms of the Cat-domain are stable in cells grown in the absence of inducing amino acids. By contrast, amino acid induction significantly accelerates Cat-domain degradation. These findings provide novel insights into the SPS-sensing pathway and suggest that Cat-domain degradation is a requisite for resetting SPS-sensor signaling.

The Ssy1-Ptr3-Ssy5 (SPS)-sensing pathway enables yeast to respond to extracellular amino acids. Stp1, the effector transcription factor, is synthesized as a latent cytoplasmic precursor with an N-terminal regulatory domain that restricts its nuclear accumulation. The negative regulatory mechanisms impinging on the N-terminal domain are poorly understood. However, Stp1 latency depends on three inner nuclear membrane proteins, Asi1, Asi2, and Asi3. We report that the N-terminal domain of Stp1 contains a small motif, designated RI, that fully accounts for latency. RI is modular, mediates interactions with the plasma membrane, and can retain histone Htb2 in the cytoplasm. A novel class of STP1 mutations affecting RI were isolated that are less efficiently retained in the cytoplasm but remain under tight negative control by the Asi proteins. Intriguingly, these mutant proteins exhibit enhanced stability in strains lacking ASI1. Our results indicate that RI mediates latency by two distinct activities: it functions as a cytoplasmic retention determinant and an Asi-dependent degron. These findings provide novel insights into the SPS-sensing pathway and demonstrate for the first time that the inner nuclear membrane Asi proteins function in a degradation pathway in the nucleus.

The nuclear envelope is a double membrane that separates the nucleus from the cytoplasm. The inner nuclear membrane (INM) functions in essential nuclear processes including chromatin organization and regulation of gene expression(1). The outer nuclear membrane is continuous with the endoplasmic reticulum and is the site of membrane protein synthesis. Protein homeostasis in this compartment is ensured by endoplasmic-reticulum-associated protein degradation (ERAD) pathways that in yeast involve the integral membrane E3 ubiquitin ligases Hrd1 and Doa10 operating with the E2 ubiquitin-conjugating enzymes Ubc6 and Ubc7 (refs 2, 3). However, little is known about protein quality control at the INM. Here we describe a protein degradation pathway at the INM in yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) mediated by the Asicomplex consisting of the RING domain proteins Asi1 and Asi3 (ref. 4). We report that the Asi complex functions together with the ubiquitin-conjugating enzymes Ubc6 and Ubc7 to degrade soluble and integral membrane proteins. Genetic evidence suggests that the Asi ubiquitin ligase defines a pathway distinct from, but complementary to, ERAD. Using unbiased screening with a novel genome-wide yeast library based on a tandem fluorescent protein timer(5), we identify more than 50 substrates of the Asi, Hrd1 and Doa10 E3 ubiquitin ligases. We show that the Asi ubiquitin ligase is involved in degradation of mislocalized integral membrane proteins, thus acting to maintain and safeguard the identity of the INM.

This thesis describes studies aimed at elucidating the molecular mechanisms that regulate the SPS (Ssy1-Ptr3-Ssy5) signal transduction pathway in the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae. This pathway is induced by extracellular amino acids and facilitates their uptake. The most downstream effectors of the SPS pathway, the homologous transcription factors Stp1 and Stp2 (Stp1/2), are synthesized as latent precursors with N-terminal regulatory domains that restrict their nuclear accumulation. Amino acid-induced signaling, initiated by the plasma membrane localized receptor Ssy1, leads via Ptr3 to the activation of the endoprotease Ssy5. Active Ssy5 cleaves the regulatory domains in Stp1/2. As a consequence, the processed transcription factors lacking their N-terminal domains accumulate in the nucleus and activate the transcription of amino acid permease genes to enhance the uptake capacity of cells.

Ssy5 is synthesized as a zymogen precursor that processes itself into a prodomain and catalytic (Cat) domain that remain non-covalently associated. We found that the prodomain functions as an inhibitor of the Cat domain. Signaling triggers the degradation of the prodomain by the proteasome, thereby releasing Cat domain activity (paper I). We identified a motif in the prodomain that functions as inducible phosphodegron. Upon signaling, this motif is phosphorylated which triggers prodomain polyubiquitylation, and as a consequence, its proteasomal degradation (paper II). Also, we found that Ptr3 functions to mediate prodomain phosphorylation upon signaling and that protein phosphatase 2A constitutively mutes phosphorylation-dependent activation of Ssy5 (paper III).

Finally, in addition to the regulation of the processing protease Ssy5, the control of transcriptional activity of Stp1 depends on a motif within its N-terminal regulatory domain, designated Region I. We found that Region I mediates latency by functioning as cytoplasmic retention determinant and nuclear degron (paper IV).

Ligand-induced conformational changes of plasma membrane receptors initiate signals that enable cells to respond to discrete extracellular cues. In response to extracellular amino acids, the yeast Ssy1-Ptr3-Ssy5 sensor triggers the endoproteolytic processing of transcription factors Stp1 and Stp2 to induce amino acid uptake. Activation of the processing protease Ssy5 depends on the signal-induced phosphorylation of its prodomain by casein kinase I (Yck1/2). Phosphorylation is required for subsequent Skp1/Cullin/Grr1 E3 ubiquitin ligase-dependent polyubiquitylation and proteasomal degradation of the inhibitory prodomain. Here we show that Rts1, a regulatory subunit of the general protein phosphatase 2A, and Ptr3 have opposing roles in controlling Ssy5 prodomain phosphorylation. Rts1 constitutively directs protein phosphatase 2A activity toward the prodomain, effectively setting a signaling threshold required to mute Ssy5 activation in the absence of amino acid induction. Ptr3 functions as an adaptor that transduces conformational signals initiated by the Ssy1 receptor to dynamically induce prodomain phosphorylation by mediating the proximity of the Ssy5 prodomain and Yck1/2. Our results demonstrate how pathway-specific and general signaling components function synergistically to convert an extracellular stimulus into a highly specific, tuned, and switch-like transcriptional response that is critical for cells to adapt to changes in nutrient availability.

Regulated proteolysis serves as a mechanism to control cellular processes. The SPS (Ssy1-Ptr3-Ssy5) sensor in yeast responds to extracellular amino acids by endoproteolytically activating transcription factors Stp1 and Stp2 (Stp1/2). The processing endoprotease Ssy5 is regulated via proteasomal degradation of its noncovalently associated N-terminal prodomain. We find that degradation of the prodomain requires a conserved phosphodegron comprising phosphoacceptor sites and ubiquitin-accepting lysine residues. Upon amino acid induction, the phosphodegron is modified in a series of linked events by a set of general regulatory factors involved in diverse signaling pathways. First, an amino acid-induced conformational change triggers phosphodegron phosphorylation by the constitutively active plasma membrane-localized casein kinase I (Yck1/2). Next the prodomain becomes a substrate for polyubiquitylation by the Skp1/Cullin/Grr1 E3 ubiquitin ligase complex (SCF(Grr1)). Finally, the modified prodomain is concomitantly degraded by the 26S proteasome. These integrated events are requisite for unfettering the Ssy5 endoprotease, and thus Stp1/2 processing. The Ssy5 phosphoacceptor motif resembles the Yck1/2- and Grr1-dependent degrons of regulators in the Snf3/Rgt2 glucose-sensing pathway. Our work defines a novel proteolytic activation cascade that regulates an intracellular signaling protease and illustrates how general signaling components are recruited to distinct pathways that achieve conditional and specific signaling outputs.