Modeling of three-dimensional structure of the H+-dependent phosphate transporter of cytoplasmic membrane from the yeast Yarrowia lipolytica

• Published in: Biochemistry (Moscow). Supplement series A, Membrane and cell biology Membrane and cell biology, 2011-12, Vol.5 (4), p.324-334
• Main Authors: Rogov, A. G., Uralsky, L. I., Uralskaya, L. A., Zvyagilskaya, R. A.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Biomedical and Life Sciences; Cell Biology; Life Sciences
• ISSN: 1990-7478; 1990-7494
• DOI: 10.1134/S1990747811050114

Information concerning phosphate transport systems in yeasts (specifically in Saccharomyces cerevisiae ), their regulation on transcriptional and post-translational levels has been summarized. There are proofs that S. cerevisiae growing only at low pH levels cannot serve a model organism for research studies of Na + -dependent phosphate transport systems that exhibit maximum activity in alkaline media. We propose the Yarrowia lipolytica yeast as an alternative organism for such studies as it can grow at high pH values (up to 9.7) in the presence of 12% NaCl, which suggests the existence of unique systems for maintaining cell homeostasis. As far as the Y. lipolytica genome has been recently sequenced, it became possible to analyze these systems through bioinformatics approaches. A sequence of H + -dependent phosphate transporter with the same function as that of the PHO84 gene product in S. cerevisiae genome was found. Based on the sequence homology with glycerol-3-phosphate transporter from E. coli , the model of three-dimensional structure of H + -dependent phosphate transporter from Y. lipolytica (from 38 to 545 residue) was constructed, analyzed, optimized, and compared with the known models. The quality of the constructed model is better than the accepted models of the H + -dependent phosphate transporter of cytoplasmic membrane from yeast Y. lipolytica .