Rapamycin sensitivity of the Schizosaccharomyces pombe tor2 mutant and organization of two highly phosphorylated TOR complexes by specific and common subunits.

Nutrients are essential for cell growth and division. Screening of Schizosaccharomyces pombe temperature-sensitive strains led to the isolation of a nutrient-insensitive mutant, tor2-287. This mutant produces a nitrogen starvation-induced arrest phenotype in rich media, fails to recover from the arrest, and is hypersensitive to rapamycin. The L2048S substitution mutation in the catalytic domain in close proximity to the adenine base of ATP is unique as it is the sole known genetic cause of rapamycin hypersensitivity. Localization of Tor2 was speckled in the vegetative cytoplasm, and both speckled and membranous in the arrested cell cytoplasm. Using mass spectroscopic analysis, we identified six subunits (Tco89, Bit61, Toc1, Tel2, Tti1 and Cka1) that, in addition to the six previously identified subunits (Tor1, Tor2, Mip1/Raptor, Ste20/Rictor, Sin1/Avo1 and Wat1/Lst8), comprise the TOR complexes (TORCs). All of the subunits so far examined are multiply phosphorylated. Tel2 bound to Tti1 interacts with various phosphatidyl inositol kinase (PIK)-related kinases including Tra1, Tra2 and Rad3, as well as Tor1 and Tor2. Schizosaccharomyces pombe TORCs should thus be functionally redundant and might be broadly regulated through different subunits that are either common or specific to the two TORCs, or even common to various PIK-related kinases. Functional redundancy of the TORCs may explain the rapamycin hypersensitivity of tor2-287.