Inositol deficiency in yeast: metabolic, enzymatic and autoradiographic studies.

The addition of inositol to starved cells of Saccharomyces cerevisiae NCYC 86 resulted in an initiation of growth. Inositol was incorporated into phosphatidyl-inositol and after a lag period RNA was the first macromolecule with a rate of synthesis departing from the rate observed in deprived cells. Pulse chase experiments showed that inositol was first incorporated into phosphatidylinositol and later into more polar lipids. Finally it appeared to be excreted into the surrounding medium. When S. cerevisiae NCYC 86 was grown in suboptimal concentrations of inositol (0,5 microgram/ml), alterations in the level of some membrane-bound enzymatic activities were detected; these might reflect structural modifications of the cellular membranes due to a different composition of phospholipids. High-resolution autoradiography showed that inositol was probably first incorporated into internal membranes and later transferred to the plasma membrane. Analytical experiments carried out with inositol-deprived cells showed that inositol was released into the surrounding medium in that case. The unbalanced growth detected in S. cerevisiae NCYC 86 under inositol deprivation might be due to an abnormal functioning of the cell membranes as a consequence of the deficiency in inositol-containing phospholipids.