Glucose sensing and signaling by two glucose receptors in the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae

Sabire Özcan, Jim Dover, Mark Johnston

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

299 Scopus citations

Abstract

How eukaryotic cells sense availability of glucose, their preferred carbon and energy source, is an important, unsolved problem. Bakers' yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) uses two glucose transporter homologs, Snf3 and Rgt2, as glucose sensors that generate a signal for induction of expression of genes encoding hexose transporters (HXT genes). We present evidence that these proteins generate an intracellular glucose signal without transporting glucose. The Snf3 and Rgt2 glucose sensors contain unusually long C-terminal tails that are predicted to be in the cytoplasm. These tails appear to be the signaling domains of Snf3 and Rgt2 because they are necessary for glucose signaling by Snf3 and Rgt2, and transplantation of the C-terminal tail of Snf3 onto the Hxt1 and Hxt2 glucose transporters converts them into glucose sensors that can generate a signal for glucose-induced HXT gene expression. These results support the idea that yeast senses glucose using two modified glucose transporters that serve as glucose receptors.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)2566-2573
Number of pages8
JournalEMBO Journal
Volume17
Issue number9
DOIs
StatePublished - May 1 1998

Funding

FundersFunder number
National Institute of General Medical SciencesR01GM032540

    Keywords

    • Glucose
    • Glucose transporter
    • Rgt2
    • Snf3
    • Yeast

    ASJC Scopus subject areas

    • General Neuroscience
    • Molecular Biology
    • General Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology
    • General Immunology and Microbiology

    Fingerprint

    Dive into the research topics of 'Glucose sensing and signaling by two glucose receptors in the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

    Cite this