Effect of the deubiquitination enzyme gene UBP6 on the stress-responsive transcription factor Msn2-mediated control of the amino acid permease Gnp1 in yeast.

In the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae, the transcriptional factor Msn2 plays an essential role in response to a variety of environmental stresses by activating the transcription of many genes that contain the stress-responsive elements in the promoters. We previously reported that overexpression of the MSN2 gene confers tolerance to various stresses in industrial yeast strains. Recently, the overexpression of MSN2 was shown to increase the amount of the amino acid permease Gnp1 on the plasma membrane, leading to the increased uptake of proline into the cell, suggesting a novel link between the Msn2-mediated stress response and amino acid homeostasis in yeast. Here, we found that overexpression of MSN2 increased ubiquitinated protein levels with reduced free ubiquitin. Among deubiquitinating enzymes (DUBs), it was revealed that the loss of Ubp6 depleted the free ubiquitin level and decreased tolerance to the toxic amino acid analogues. The overexpression of UBP6 in MSN2-overexpressing cells clearly complemented the impaired tolerance towards the toxic amino acid analogues. Both the protein level and the plasma-membrane localization of Gnp1 were increased in ubp6-deleted cells, as shown in MSN2-overexpressing cells. These results suggest that an excess level of Msn2 impairs endocytic degradation of Gnp1 through dysfunction of Ubp6 and other DUBs.