Abstract
The free tryptophan pool and the levels of two enzymes of tryptophan biosynthesis (anthranilate synthase and indoleglycerolphosphate synthase) have been determined in a wild type strain of Saccharomyces cerevisiae and in mutants with altered regulatory properties.
The tryptophan pool of wild type cells growing in minimal medium is 0.07 μmole per g dry weight. Addition of anthranilate, indole or tryptophan to the medium produces a fifteen- to forty-fold increase in tryptophan pool, but causes no repression of the biosynthetic enzymes. Inclusion of 5-methyltryptophan in the growth medium causes a reduction in growth rate and a derepression of the biosynthetic enzymes, and this is shown here not to be correlated with a decrease in the free tryptophan pool.
Mutants with an altered anthranilate synthase showing decreased sensitivity to inhibition by l-tryptophan or by the analogue dl-5-methyltryptophan have a tryptophan pool far higher than the wild type strain, but no repression of indoleglycerolphosphate synthase was observed. Mutants with an anthranilate synthase more sensitive to tryptophan inhibition show a slightly reduced tryptophan pool, but no derepression of indoleglycerolphosphate synthase was found.
A mutant with constitutively derepressed levels of the biosynthetic enzymes shows a considerably increased tryptophan pool. Addition of 5-methyltryptophan to the growth medium of non-derepressible mutants causes a decrease in growth rate accompanied by a decrease in the tryptophan pool.
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Abbreviations
- CDRP:
-
1-(o-carboxyphenylamino)-1-deoxyribulosephosphate
- paba:
-
paraaminobenzoic acid
- PRA:
-
N-(5′-phosphoribosyl)-anthranilate
- tRNA:
-
transfer ribonucleic acid; trp1 to trp5 refer to the structural genes for corresponding tryptophan biosynthetic enzymes
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Fantes, P.A., Roberts, L.M. & Huetter, R. Free tryptophan pool and tryptophan biosynthetic enzymes in Saccharomyces cerevisiae . Arch. Microbiol. 107, 207–214 (1976). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00446842
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00446842