Characterization of the glucose-induced inactivation of maltose permease in Saccharomyces cerevisiae

The addition of glucose to maltose-fermenting Saccharomyces cerevisiae cells causes a rapid and irreversible loss of the ability to transport maltose, resulting both from the repression of transcription of the maltose permease gene and from the inactivation of maltose permease. The latter is referred to as glucose-induced inactivation or catabolite inactivation. We describe an analysis of this process in a maltose-fermenting strain expressing a hemagglutinin (HA)-tagged allele of MAL61, encoding maltose permease. The transfer of maltose-induced cells expressing the Mal61/HA protein to rich medium containing glucose produces a decrease in maltose transport rates which is paralleled by a decrease in Mal61/HA maltose permease protein levels. In nitrogen starvation medium, glucose produces a biphasic inactivation, i.e., an initial, rapid loss in transport activity (inhibition) followed by a slower decrease in transport activity, which correlates with a decrease in the amount of maltose permease protein (proteolysis). The inactivation in both rich and nitrogen-starved media results from a decrease in Vmax with no apparent change in Km. Using strains carrying mutations in END3, REN1(VPS2), PEP4, and PRE1 PRE2, we demonstrate that the proteolysis of Mal61/HAp is dependent on endocytosis and vacuolar proteolysis and is independent of the proteosome. Moreover, we show that the Mal61/HA maltose permease is present in differentially phosphorylated forms.