The N- and C-terminal mutations in tryptophan permease Tat2 confer cell growth in Saccharomyces cerevisiae under high-pressure and low-temperature conditions.

Tryptophan uptake appears to be the limiting factor in growth of tryptophan auxotrophic Saccharomyces cerevisiae strains under the conditions of high hydrostatic pressure and low temperature. When the cells are subjected to a pressure of 25 MPa, tryptophan permease Tat2 is degraded in a manner dependent on ubiquitination by Rsp5. One of the high-pressure growth-conferring genes, HPG2, was shown to be allelic to TAT2. The HPG2-1 (Tat2(E27F)) mutation site is located within the ExKS motif in the N-terminus, and the HPG2-2 (Tat2(D563N)) and HPG2-3 (Tat2(E570K)) mutation sites are located at the KQEIAE sequence in the C-terminus. The HPG2 mutations enhance the stability of Tat2 during high-pressure or low-temperature incubation, leading to cell growth under these stressful conditions. These results suggest that the cytoplasmic tails are involved in Rsp5-mediated ubiquitination of Tat2 under high-pressure or low-temperature conditions.