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Journal of Bacteriology, December 2000, p. 6933-6939, Vol. 182, No. 24
0021-9193/00/$04.00+0
Copyright © 2000, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.

Phenotypes of Fission Yeast Defective in Ubiquinone Production Due to Disruption of the Gene for p-Hydroxybenzoate Polyprenyl Diphosphate Transferase

Naonori Uchida, Kengo Suzuki, Ryoichi Saiki, Tomohiro Kainou, Katsunori Tanaka, Hideyuki Matsuda, and Makoto Kawamukai*

Department of Applied Bioscience and Biotechnology, Faculty of Life and Environmental Science, Shimane University, Matsue 690-8504, Japan

Received 13 June 2000/Accepted 26 September 2000

Ubiquinone is an essential component of the electron transfer system in both prokaryotes and eukaryotes and is synthesized from chorismate and polyprenyl diphosphate by eight steps. p-Hydroxybenzoate (PHB) polyprenyl diphosphate transferase catalyzes the condensation of PHB and polyprenyl diphosphate in ubiquinone biosynthesis. We isolated the gene (designated ppt1) encoding PHB polyprenyl diphosphate transferase from Schizosaccharomyces pombe and constructed a strain with a disrupted ppt1 gene. This strain could not grow on minimal medium supplemented with glucose. Expression of COQ2 from Saccharomyces cerevisiae in the defective S. pombe strain restored growth and enabled the cells to produce ubiquinone-10, indicating that COQ2 and ppt1 are functional homologs. The ppt1-deficient strain required supplementation with antioxidants, such as cysteine, glutathione, and alpha -tocopherol, to grow on minimal medium. This suggests that ubiquinone can act as an antioxidant, a premise supported by our observation that the ppt1-deficient strain is sensitive to H2O2 and Cu2+. Interestingly, we also found that the ppt1-deficient strain produced a significant amount of H2S, which suggests that oxidation of sulfide by ubiquinone may be an important pathway for sulfur metabolism in S. pombe. Ppt1-green fluorescent protein fusion proteins localized to the mitochondria, indicating that ubiquinone biosynthesis occurs in the mitochondria in S. pombe. Thus, analysis of the phenotypes of S. pombe strains deficient in ubiquinone production clearly demonstrates that ubiquinone has multiple functions in the cell apart from being an integral component of the electron transfer system.

* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Department of Applied Bioscience and Biotechnology, Faculty of Life and Environmental Science, Shimane University, 1060 Nishikawatsu, Matsue 690-8504, Japan. Phone: 81-852-32-6587. Fax: 81-852-32-6092. E-mail: kawamuka{at}life.shimane-u.ac.jp.

Journal of Bacteriology, December 2000, p. 6933-6939, Vol. 182, No. 24
0021-9193/00/$04.00+0
Copyright © 2000, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.


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