JBC, Vol. 252, Issue 3, 878-882, Feb, 1977
Metabolic regulation of aminoacyl-tRNA synthetase biosynthesis in bakers' yeast
R. C. Johnson, P. R. Vanatta and J. R. Fresco
The specific activities of 15 aminoacyl-tRNA synthetases in Saccharomyces
cerevisiae were measured after growth under a variety of conditions that
produced a range of cell-doubling times. The specific activity of each
synthetase increased as cell-doubling time decreased. Control experiments
eliminate the possibility that these results are due to preferential
recovery of synthetases, or to the presence of activators in the faster
growing cultures or inhibitors in the slower growing ones. These
observations run counter to the expectation that synthetases in bacteria
and yeast are negatively regulated by free amino acids, or, more likely, by
aminoacyl-tRNA. In fact, as the growth medium was enriched, generation
times decreased, and synthetase and aminoacyl-tRNA levels increased. It is
suggested that cytoplasmic aminoacyl-tRNA synthetases may be more or less
coordinately controlled such that their response to growth follows the
pattern observed for ribosome production and RNA synthesis. This suggests
the possibility of coordinated response of genes for components of the
protein synthetic apparatus.