Protein overexport in a Saccharomyces cerevisiae mutant is not due to facilitated release of cell-surface proteins.

Saccharomyces cerevisiae strain MW11 is a temperature-sensitive mutant which exports twenty times more proteins at 37 degrees C than parental or wild-type strains do. To understand the mechanism underlying the protein overexport in the mutant the possibility of an altered cell-wall structure leading to facilitated release of cell-surface proteins was studied. Data on calcofluor white and zymolyase sensitivities, resistance to killer 1 toxin and determination of exported acid phosphatase and invertase did not provide evidence for alterations in the cell-wall structure that could explain the protein overexport phenotype. The results were obtained in experiments when transcription of mutated gene was discontinued which permits the full expression of the protein overexport phenotype.