tRNA wobble base modifications and boric acid resistance in yeast: Boron-resistant deletion mutants induce the general amino acid control mechanism and activate boron efflux

Abstract

Boric acid is essential for plants and has many vital roles in animals and microorganisms. However, its high doses are toxic to all organisms. We previously screened yeast deletion collections to identify boric acid-resistant and susceptible mutants to identify genes that play a role in boron tolerance. Here, we analyzed boron resistant mutants (elp1 increment ,elp3 increment ,elp6 increment ,ncs2 increment ,ncs6 increment andkti12 increment ) for their abilities to modulate the general amino acid control system (GAAC) and to induce boron efflux pumpATR1. The mutants analyzed in this study lack the genes that play roles in tRNA Wobble base modifications. We found that all of the boron resistant mutants activated Gcn4-dependent reporter gene activity and increased the transcript level of theATR1gene. Additionally, boron resistant cells accumulated less boric acid in their cytoplasm compared to the wild type cells upon boron exposure. Thus, our findings suggested that loss of wobble base modifications in tRNA leads to GAAC activation andATR1induction, which in turn reduced intracellular boron levels and caused boron resistance.