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    Isolation and study of KlLSM4, a Kluyveromyces lactis gene homologous to the essential gene LSM4 of Saccharomyces cerevisiae.

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    We have isolated the KlLSM4 gene as a multicopy suppressor of a Kluyveromyces lactis mutant which shows a rag(-) phenotype (resistance to antimycin A on glucose). This gene is homologous to the ScLSM4 of Saccharomyces cerevisiae, which codes for an essential 187 amino acid protein containing Sm-like domains. These motifs are present in the evolutionarily conserved family of the Sm-like proteins, which are involved in a large number of cellular processes, including pre-mRNA splicing and mRNA decapping. We demonstrated that the first 72 amino acids of KlLsm4p, which contain the Sm-like domains, can restore cell viability in both K. lactis and S. cerevisiae cells lacking the wild-type protein. However, the absence of the carboxy-terminal region resulted in a remarkable loss of cell viability in the stationary phase. The KlLSM4 sequence has been deposited in the EMBL Data library under Accession No. AJ311719

    Caspase-dependent apoptosis in yeast

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    Damaging environment, certain intracellular defects or heterologous expression of pro-apoptotic genes induce death in yeast cells exhibiting typical markers of apoptosis. In mammals, apoptosis can be directed by the activation of groups of proteases, called caspases, that cleave specific substrates and trigger cell death. In addition, in plants, fungi, Dictyostelium and metazoa, paracaspases and metacaspases have been identified that share some homologies with caspases but showing different substrate specificity. In the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae, a gene (MCA1/YCA1) has been identified coding for a metacaspase involved in the induction of cell death. Metacaspases are not biochemical, but sequence and functional homologes of caspases, as deletion of them rescues entirely different death scenarios. In this review we will summarize the current knowledge in S. cerevisiae on apoptotic processes, induced by internal and external triggers, which are dependent on the metacaspase gene YCA1. (C) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved

    Apoptosis and aging in mitochondrial morphology mutants of S. cerevisiae

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    Cell viability during chronological aging and after apoptotic stimuli in some yeast mutants with altered mitochondrial morphology was followed; a function for the corresponding genes in the apoptotic process was assessed. MDM30 and DNM1, the genes encoding an F-box protein and the dynamin-related GTPase, respectively, are involved in triggering aging and apoptosis. In contrast, YME1, encoding a subunit of the mitochondrial inner membrane i-AAA proteinase complex, has a protective role in these processes. FIS1, the mitochondrial fission gene, might play a protective role after an apoptotic insult while it seems to promote cell death in aging cells
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