A functional link between NAD homeostasis and N-terminal protein acetylation in .

Nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD) is an essential metabolite participating in cellular redox chemistry and signaling, and the complex regulation of NAD metabolism is not yet fully understood. To investigate this, we established a NAD-intermediate specific reporter system to identify factors required for salvage of metabolically linked nicotinamide (NAM) and nicotinic acid (NA). Mutants lacking components of the NatB complex, and appeared as hits in this screen. NatB is an N-terminal acetyltransferase responsible for acetylation of the N terminus of specific Met-retained peptides. In NatB mutants, increased NA/NAM levels were concomitant with decreased NAD We identified the vacuolar pool of nicotinamide riboside (NR) as the source of this increased NA/NAM. This NR pool is increased by nitrogen starvation, suggesting NAD and related metabolites may be trafficked to the vacuole for recycling. Supporting this, increased NA/NAM release in NatB mutants was abolished by deleting the autophagy protein We next examined Tpm1 (tropomyosin), whose function is regulated by NatB-mediated acetylation, and Tpm1 overexpression () was shown to restore some NatB mutant defects. Interestingly, although largely suppressed NA/NAM release in NatB mutants, it did not restore NAD levels. We showed that decreased nicotinamide mononucleotide adenylyltransferase (Nma1/Nma2) levels probably caused the NAD defects, and was sufficient to restore NAD NatB-mediated N-terminal acetylation of Nma1 and Nma2 appears essential for maintaining NAD levels. In summary, our results support a connection between NatB-mediated protein acetylation and NAD homeostasis. Our findings may contribute to understanding the molecular basis and regulation of NAD metabolism.