PSI+ prion generation in yeast: characterization of the 'strain' difference

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Yeast 2001; 18: 489±497.

Research Article

[PSI+] prion generation in yeast: characterization of
the `strain' difference
Natalia V. Kochneva-Pervukhova, Maria B. Chechenova, Igor A. Valouev, Vitaly V. Kushnirov,
Vladimir N. Smirnov and Michael D. Ter-Avanesyan*
Institute of Experimental Cardiology, Cardiology Research Center, 121552 Moscow, Russia

* Correspondence to:               Abstract
M. D. Ter-Avanesyan, Institute     The yeast cytoplasmically-inherited nonsense suppressor [PSI+] determinant is presumed
of Experimental Cardiology,        to be a manifestation of the aggregated prion-like state of the Sup35 protein.
Cardiology Research Center,
                                   Overexpression of the Sup35 protein induces generation of [PSI+] determinants with
3rd Cherepkovskaya Street 15A,
121552 Moscow, Russia.
                                   various suppressor ef®ciency and mitotic stabilities. Here, we demonstrate that the relative
E-mail: ter@cardio.ru              frequency of appearance of [PSI+] with different properties depends on the SUP35 allele
                                   used to induce their generation. The difference in properties of [PSI+] determinants was
                                   preserved after their transmission from one yeast strain to another. This difference
                                   correlated with variation in properties of the Sup35 protein. A novel type of prion
                                   instability was observed: some [PSI+] with weak suppressor ef®ciency could convert
                                   spontaneously into strong suppressor determinants. Copyright # 2001 John Wiley &
  Received: 22 June 2000           Sons, Ltd.
  Accepted: 6 November 2000
                                   Keywords:      eRF3; prion strains; [PSI+]; Sup35p; Saccharomyces cerevisiae; yeast

Introduction                                                          Weissman, 1997; Prusiner et al., 1998). The con-
                                                                      temporary concept suggests that they represent a
The [PSI+] genetic determinant of Saccharomyces                       conformationally altered form (PrPSc) of normal
cerevisiae decreases the ef®ciency of translation                     host-encoded protein (PrPC), which has acquired an
termination and may be revealed by suppression of                     ability to convert PrPC into this altered prion form.
nonsense mutations. It exhibits unusual genetic                          Several models of prion conversion have been
properties, which include a non-Mendelian mode                        proposed. The heterodimer (template assistance)
of inheritance, an ability to disappear in the                        model assumes that the prion, existing as a
presence of low concentrations of guanidine hydro-                    monomer, can form heterodimer complexes with
chloride (GuHCl) and to reappear upon over-                           normal molecules catalysing their prion rearrange-
expression of the Sup35 protein (Sup35p) (for                         ment. The two molecules then dissociate and the
review, see Cox et al., 1988; Wickner et al., 1995).                  cycle repeats. According to this model, the aggrega-
Study of the biochemical properties of Sup35p                         tion is a secondary process, non-essential for the
showed that it aggregates in the [PSI+] strains,                      prion conversion (Cohen et al., 1994). The
while being soluble in the strains lacking this                       nucleated polymerization model considers prions
determinant (Patino et al., 1996; Paushkin et al.,                    as regular polymers, or one-dimensional crystals
1996). These properties are best explained by a                       that serve as nuclei for further polymerization of
hypothesis that [PSI+] is a phenotypic manifesta-                     the protein. The conformational rearrangement of
tion of the prion-like state of the Sup35 protein                     monomers may either occur spontaneously and
(Wickner, 1994).                                                      then be ®xed in polymer structure (Jarrett and
   Prions are infectious agents responsible for a                     Lansbury, 1993) or, alternatively, be directly cata-
group of diseases typi®ed by sheep scrapie, bovine                    lysed by polymer at the moment of accretion
spongiform encephalopathy and human Creutz-                           (Horwich and Weissman, 1997). As a modi®cation
feld±Jacob disease (for review, see Horwich and                       of the latter model, it was proposed that the prion

Copyright # 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
490                                                                            N. V. Kochneva-Pervukhova et al.

conformation is adopted concomitantly with assem-             although some difference in the rate of Sup35p
bly, via molten oligomeric intermediates (Serio et al.,       aggregation in cells with various [PSI+] was
2000).                                                        revealed (Zhou et al., 1999), the phenomenon of
   Sup35p is a yeast member of the eRF3 family of             [PSI+] variability is poorly characterized.
translation termination factors (Zhouravleva et al.,             In this work we demonstrate that the relative
1995; Stans®eld et al., 1995) and is composed of the          frequencies of appearance of [PSI+] with weak and
amino-terminal region and carboxy-terminal (C)                strong suppressor phenotype depend on the SUP35
domain of 253 and 432 amino acids, respectively               allele used to induce their generation. We further
(Kushnirov et al., 1988; Ter-Avanesyan et al., 1993,          characterize the [PSI+] strains difference and
1994). The evolutionarily conserved C domain of               describe [PSI+] with weak suppressor phenotype
Sup35p is responsible for its function in translation         that can spontaneously convert into strong suppres-
termination and is essential for cell viability, while        sor determinants.
the N-terminal region is neither conserved nor
essential. This region may be further subdivided
into the middle (M) domain, of unknown function,              Materials and methods
and the N-terminal (N) domain of 123 amino acids,
required for [PSI+] maintenance (Figure 1). The N             Strains and media
domain plays a key role in the [PSI+] phenomenon,
being required for [PSI+] propagation in vivo and             The S. cerevisiae strains used were 5V-H19 (MATa
solely responsible for Sup35p prion conversion and            ade2-1 SUQ5 can1-100 leu2-3,112 ura3-52 [psix]),
oligomerization into amyloid-like ®brils in vitro             c10B-H49 (MATa ade2-1 SUQ5 lys1-1 his3-11,15
(Paushkin et al., 1997a, b; Glover et al., 1997;              leu1 kar1-1 cyhr [psix]) (Ter-Avanesyan et al., 1994;
King et al., 1997).                                           Kochneva-Pervukhova et al., 1998), 1B-H67
   One of the most intriguing properties of prions is         (MATa ade2-1 SUQ5 ura3-52 lys1-1 his3-11,15
                                                              leu1 leu2-3,112 kar1-1 cyhr [psi±]) (this work). The
the existence of their different strains. In mammals,
                                                              sup35-C allele of the strain 1±5V-H19 encodes a
different prion strains are de®ned by speci®c
                                                              truncated Sup35 protein lacking amino acids 1±253
incubation times, distribution of vacuolar lesions
                                                              and causes dominant antisuppression and inability
and patterns of PrPSc accumulation (for review, see
                                                              to propagate [PSI+] (Kochneva-Pervukhova et al.,
Prusiner et al., 1998). In yeast they can be revealed         1998). This strain contained [PIN+] determinant,
by differences in the suppressor ef®ciency and                which allows induction of [PSI+] by overexpression
mitotic stability of independently isolated [PSI+]            of Sup35p (Derkatch et al., 1997). We used
determinants (Derkatch et al., 1996). It was shown            standard rich (YPD) and synthetic (SC) media for
that at the molecular level mammalian prion strain            yeast (Sherman et al., 1986). Non-fermentable
differences correlated with stable variations in the          media contained glycerol (24 ml/l) as the sole
prion protein structure (Bessen et al., 1995; Safar           carbon source. All solid media contained 2.5%
et al., 1998; Caughey et al., 1998). However,                 (w/v) agar. Yeast cells were grown at 30uC.

Figure 1. Schematic representation of the Sup35 protein and its fragments. Designations of the SUP35 deletion alleles and
corresponding protein fragments are presented at left. Amino acid numbers are indicated

Copyright # 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.                                                           Yeast 2001; 18: 489±497.
Analysis of [PSI+] generation de novo                                                                        491

Plasmids                                                recipient strain were scored as cytoductants and
                                                        tested for the ability to grow on adenine omission
DNA manipulations were performed using stan-
                                                        medium (Ter-Avanesyan et al., 1994). To quantify
dard protocols (Sambrook et al., 1989). A series
                                                        the induction of [PSI+], transformants of the 1-5V-
of pEMBL-yex4-based plasmids (Cesareny and
                                                        H19 [psix] [PIN+] strain with multicopy plasmids
Murray, 1987) containing either the complete
                                                        carrying different SUP35 alleles were crossed with
SUP35 gene or its 3k-deletion alleles (Figure 1) has
                                                        the c10B-H19 kar1-1 [psix] [rhox] tester strain
been described previously (Ter-Avanesyan et al.,
                                                        carrying the cyhr mutation. Cytoductants were
1993). The pUKC815 plasmid carrying the
                                                        selected on glycerol medium containing 3 mg/ml
PGK±lacZ gene fusion, and pUKC817, which is a
                                                        cycloheximide and the frequency of [PSI+] induc-
pUKC815 derivative carrying an in-frame TAA
                                                        tion was estimated as described by Kochneva-
termination codon at the junction of the PGK and
                                                        Pervukhova et al. (1998).
lacZ genes, were described by Stans®eld et al.
(1995). The transformants with all the plasmids
used were selected on uracil omission medium.           Determination of the nonsense suppression
                                                        ef®ciency
                                                        The UAA nonsense suppression levels were deter-
Genetic methods
                                                        mined as ratio of b-galactosidase activity in cells
Standard methods of yeast genetics were used            transformed with pUKC817 plasmid to that in cells
(Sherman et al., 1986). Nutrition markers were          with pUKC815, as described previously (Stans®eld
scored by growth on synthetic complete (SC) media       et al., 1995).
lacking speci®c amino acids or nucleic acids bases.
DNA transformation of yeast cells was performed
                                                        Preparation, fractionation and analysis of yeast
as described (Gietz et al., 1995). Non-suppressive
                                                        cell lysates
petites of the strains c10B-H49, 5V-H19 and
1B-H67 were obtained by ethidium bromide treat-         Yeast cultures were grown in liquid YPD medium
ment (Goldring et al., 1970). Yeast strains were        or in a medium selective for plasmid marker to an
cured, when necessary, of the [PSI+] determinant        OD600 of 1.0 (exponential phase) or, when neces-
by growth on YPD medium supplemented with               sary, to OD600 of 3.5 (stationary phase). The cells
3 mM guanidine hydrochloride (GuHCl test) (Tuite        were harvested, washed in water and lysed by
et al., 1981). The [psix] colonies of ade2-1 SUQ5       vortexing with glass beads in buffer A (25 mM
carrying strains were identi®ed by their red colour     Tris±HCl, pH 7.4, 100 mM NaCl, 5 mM MgCl2,
and adenine requirement because the weak serine-        1 mM dithiothreitol) containing 1 mM phenylmethyl-
inserting tRNA suppressor SUQ5 cannot suppress          sulphonyl ¯uoride (PMSF) to limit proteolysis
the ade2-1 ochre mutation in the absence of the         degradation. Cell debris was removed by centrifu-
[PSI+] determinant (Cox, 1965). The mitotic             gation at 15 000rg for 10 min. To analyse the size
stability of different [PSI+] isolates was determined   distribution of Sup35p by differential centrifuga-
as the percentage of [PSI+] cells in their individual   tion, the lysates were underlaid with 1 ml 30%
colonies grown on YPD medium.                           sucrose pads made in buffer A and centrifuged in a
   The transfer of [PSI+] in `cytoduction' experi-      Beckman SW50 rotor at 45 000 r.p.m. at 4uC for
ments was performed as described (Ter-Avanesyan         30 min. The resulting supernatants, pellets and
et al., 1994; Kochneva-Pervukhova et al., 1998).        intermediate fractions were analysed by Western
The recipient strain in such crosses was [psix]         blotting. To obtain sedimented material containing
[rhox], while the donor was [rho+]. In addition,        Sup35pPSI+, the lysates of 5V-H19 [PSI+] strain
one of the crossed strains carries the kar1-1           were loaded onto a sucrose layer (1 ml, 30%) and
mutation that blocks karyogamy (Conde and Fink,         centrifuged at 200 000rg for 30 min at 4uC. The
1976). The strains were mixed together on the           sedimented material was resuspended in buffer A
surface of a YPD plate, incubated overnight, and        for further use in conversion reactions, performed
then replica-plated to appropriate selective medium     as described previously (Paushkin et al., 1997a). A
containing glycerol as the sole carbon source.          ratio of Sup35pPSI+ to Sup35NMppsix in mixtures
Respiratory-competent ([rho+]) colonies of the          was 1 : 4 in all cases. Protein samples were separated

Copyright # 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.                                                  Yeast 2001; 18: 489±497.
492                                                                   N. V. Kochneva-Pervukhova et al.

on a 10±15% SDS±polyacrylamide gel, according to       c10B-H49 [psix], using the `cytoduction' procedure
Laemmli (1970), and electrophoretically transferred    (see Materials and methods). The crosses of all
to nitrocellulose sheets (Towbin et al., 1979).        tested transformants carrying plasmids with differ-
Western blots were probed with polyclonal rabbit       ent 3k-deletion SUP35 alleles produced Ade+
anti-Sup35p antibody or antibody against the           cytoductants, which were shown to be [PSI+] by
Sup35N2p fragment and developed using the              the GuHCl test. These [PSI+] clones differed by
Amersham ECL system. Estimation of relative            their suppressor ef®ciency and could be roughly
amount of soluble Sup35p in lysates of different       divided into two classes: `strong', with strong
[PSI+] isolates was performed as described by Zhou     suppressor phenotype (white on YPD medium,
et al. (1999), with minor modi®cations.                and able to grow on adenine omission medium
                                                       after 2 days of incubation) and `weak', with weak
                                                       suppressor phenotype (pink on YPD medium, and
Results
                                                       growing on adenine-free medium on the third or
                                                       fourth day of incubation). Remarkably, the relative
Factors in¯uencing the spectrum of [PSI+]
                                                       proportion of the weak and strong [PSI+]
strains generated de novo
                                                       depended on the Sup35p variant used for their
The overexpression of Sup35p or its N-terminal         generation. The increased ef®ciency of [PSI+]
part induces the de novo appearance of the [PSI+]      induction by overexpression of short Sup35p was
determinant (Chernoff et al., 1993; Derkatch et al.,   mainly due to the appearance of weak [PSI+]
1996). This procedure generates various forms          (Table 1).
(`strains') of [PSI+] determinant with different
nonsense suppressor ef®ciency and mitotic stability
                                                       Strain-speci®c variation of [PSI+] properties
(Derkatch et al. 1996). The C-terminal truncation of
Sup35p greatly increases the frequency of [PSI+]       While we roughly divided the [PSI+] strains into
induction (Kochneva-Pervukhova et al., 1998).          `strong' and `weak' groups, it was of interest to
Here, we observed that such Sup35p truncation          study in more details their distribution by suppres-
also in¯uences properties of the generated [PSI+]      sor ef®ciency. For this, [PSI+] induced in the strain
determinants. For the [PSI+] generation, the multi-    1±5V-H19 by overexpression of Sup35NMp were
copy plasmids encoding different C-terminally          transferred by cytoduction to the strain 1B-H67,
truncated Sup35p variants were expressed in the        bearing the suppressor-assaying plasmid pUKC817
strain 1±5V-H19 [psix] [PIN+] encoding Sup35Cp,        (Stans®eld et al., 1995). Cytoductants were selected
which lacks the prionogenic N-terminal region and      on the glycerol medium supplemented with cyclo-
thus cannot convert into the prion form. The use of    heximide and checked for the ability to grow on
this strain provides two advantages over the wild-     adenine omission medium. Ade+ clones were taken
type strain for the quantitative analysis of the       for determination of nonsense codon readthrough.
[PSI+] generation. First, the [PSI+] induction in      As a reference, the 1B-H67 [psix] recipient tester
transformants of the 1-5V-H19 strain should be         strain carrying the pUKC815 plasmid was used. It
solely de®ned by the prion properties of the           should be noted that the strain 1B-H67 carries the
plasmid-encoded C-terminally truncated Sup35p          SUQ5 ochre suppressor, which increases the level of
variant. Second, this strain allows avoidance of       UAA suppression. Among the 51 cytoductants
counterselection of the appearing [PSI+] cells         tested, the ef®ciency of UAA suppression ranged
because, in contrast to the strains wild-type for      from 5% to 65% (Figure 2). The distribution of
SUP35, the combination of [PSI+] with inducing         [PSI+] by suppressor ef®ciency was normal, rather
plasmids is not detrimental in the strains             than bimodal. This argues against the existence of
carrying the SUP35-C allele (Dagkesamanskaya           only two strains, but is consistent with high number
and Ter-Avanesyan, 1991; Paushkin et al., 1997b).      of strains.
   The [PSI+] phenotype is not manifested in the          The [PSI+] isolates obtained also differed by
strain 1±5V-H19 due to the presence of non-prion       their mitotic stability. [PSI+] isolates with strong
Sup35Cp (Ter-Avanesyan et al., 1994). To monitor       suppressor phenotype were 100% stable during
the [PSI+] generation, we transferred cytoplasm        growth on YPD medium, while [PSI+] isolates
from the 1±5V-H19 transformants to a tester strain,    with weak suppression segregated [psix] subclones

Copyright # 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.                                                Yeast 2001; 18: 489±497.
Analysis of [PSI+] generation de novo                                                                                                 493

Table 1. The frequency and properties of [PSI+] generated de novo depend on the structure of plasmid SUP35
alleles
            Total number                                Number of                                                      `Strong' [PSI+]
Inducing    of [rho+]          Number of [PSI+]         `strong'       [PSI+] cytoductants        `Strong' [PSI+]      among all [rho+]
allele      cytoductants       cytoductants             [PSI+]         (%)                        (%)                  cytoductants (%)

sup35-N1     2700              1068                     39             39.6t6.9                    3.7t0.5              1.4t0.2
sup35-N2     1980               260                     11             13.1t0.9                    4.2t1.9             0.56t0.29
sup35-NM    12000                65                     13             0.54t0.13                  20.0t0.8             0.11t0.02
sup35-DS    45000               202                     63             0.45t0.24                  31.2t1.4             0.14t0.07
SUP35       40800                89                     53             0.22t0.03                  59.6t4.1             0.13t0.03

The frequency and spectrum of [PSI+] induced in the strain 1±5V-H19 by multicopy plasmids carrying indicated SUP35 alleles were estimated as
described in Results. In each case, where it was possible, 100 respiratory-competent Ade+ cytoductants were examined by the GuHCl test. All
tested Ade+ cytoductants appeared due to [PSI+] acquisition. The [PSI+] induction data represent averages from three independent
transformants. The standard deviation is indicated.

with a frequency of
494                                                                                            N. V. Kochneva-Pervukhova et al.

Table 2. Mitotic stability of different [PSI+] strain
Type of [PSI+]             [PSI+] isolate            Number of clones                Number of [psix] clones                % of [psix] clones

                           43                         806                             0                                     0
Strong                     51                        1419                             0                                     0
                           77                        1034                             0                                     0
                           45                         994                             0                                     0
                           53                         917                             4                                     0.4t0.1
Weak                       55                         798                            37                                     4.6t0.3
                           67                         826                             2                                     0.2t0.1
                           79                         405                             2                                     0.5t0.1

Percentage of [PSI+] loss was calculated as described in Results. Data represent averages from three independent subclones of each [PSI+] isolate.
The standard deviation is indicated.

(Zhou et al., 1999). This is likely to be below the                       Discussion
physiological range, since Sup35p is essential. By
our data, the decrease of Sup35p below 5% of its                          The protein-only concept for prions presumes that
wild-type levels causes growth inhibition and cell                        the differences between their strains can only result
death (I. A. Valouev, unpublished). It is noteworthy                      from conformational variations of prion protein.
that the experiments described above were per-                            Indeed, the structural difference of PrPSc was
formed with yeast cultures in stationary phase of                         demonstrated for different strains of mammalian
growth, which could be an important factor                                prion (Caughey et al., 1998; Safar et al., 1998).
increasing the Sup35p aggregation.                                        Thus, the phenomenon of prion strains reveals the
   The use of cells harvested in the stationary phase                     ability of prion proteins to exist not in just two, but
was due to observation that this allows distinguish-                      in multiple alternative self-propagating conforma-
ing more clearly [PSI+] and [psix] cells by Sup35p                        tions. Such an ability is interesting in itself, but it
aggregation than in the exponential phase. There-                         also gives an important insight into the debate
fore, the experiment was reproduced with the cells                        about the models for prion conversion: the exis-
harvested in exponential phase, which gave remark-                        tence of strains is more compatible with variants of
ably different results: the soluble Sup35p of the                         the nucleated polymerization model than with the
strain with `strong' [PSI+] constituted 6% and with                       heterodimer model. Indeed, it appears unlikely that
`weak' [PSI+] 25% of its amount in the [psix] strain                      many different prion conformations can stably exist
(Figure 3). It should be noted that the [psix]                            and self-reproduce as monomers. In contrast, in the
reference level of Sup35p in this case was about                          polymerization model the alternative conformations
three-fold higher than in stationary-phase cells.                         would be stabilized by intermolecular interactions
   The Sup35p from `weak' and `strong' [PSI+]                             and reproduced along the length of the prion
strains was also distinguished by its ability to seed                     polymer. The strain variation was observed for
the prion conversion of Sup35ppsix in vitro. Lysate                       both the conventional [PSI+] of S. cerevisiae and
of [psix] transformant of the strain 5V-H19 with                          arti®cial [PSI+] based on N-terminal domain of
multicopy plasmid encoding Sup35NMp was mixed                             Sup35p from yeast P. methanolica (Derkatch et al.,
with sedimented material obtained from the lysates                        1996; Kushnirov et al., 2000). This supports the
of 5V-H19 carrying either `strong' or `weak' [PSI+].                      idea that the ability to exist in multiple forms is a
                                                                          general property of prions, rather than a speci®c
In both cases Sup35NMp was convertible to an
                                                                          trait of the mammalian prions. However, the
aggregated (Figure 4) and protease-resistant (data
                                                                          evidence for the existence of yeast prion strains is
not shown) form, but the amount of converted                              not as strong as for mammalian prions, for which it
material was about two-fold lower when the                                was shown that their strain-speci®c differences are
reaction was seeded by the lysate of cells with                           preserved upon transmission from one animal to
`weak' [PSI+]. No Sup35NMp aggregation was                                another. In this paper, we reinforce the evidence for
observed in a control experiment without addition                         the [PSI+] strain variation being related solely to
of the Sup35pPSI+ seeds.                                                  Sup35p by showing that genetic properties of

Copyright # 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.                                                                               Yeast 2001; 18: 489±497.
Analysis of [PSI+] generation de novo                                                                                   495

                                                                Figure 4. Conversion of Sup35NMppsix to an aggregated
                                                                form caused by mixing with aggregated Sup35p isolated from
                                                                cells with `weak' and `strong' [PSI+]. Western blots were
                                                                probed with antibody against Sup35N2p. Experiment: lysate
                                                                of [psix] cells expressing Sup35NMp were mixed with [PSI+]
                                                                sedimented material containing Sup35p, incubated for 20 min
Figure 3. [PSI+]-dependent Sup35p aggregation. `Weak' and       and analysed as described. Control: analysis of Sup35NMp in
`strong' [PSI+] were transferred by cytoduction from the        [psix] lysate after 2 h of incubation. Cytosol, sucrose and
strain c10B-H49 to the strain 5V-H19 [psix] and the levels      pellet: supernatant, intermediate fraction and sedimented
of soluble Sup35p in corresponding cytoductants were            material obtained after centrifugation of lysates and mixes
compared with that of Sup35p in the strain 5V-H19 [psix].
A. Distribution of Sup35p between the soluble and
                                                                Sup35p properties, rather than to any additional
aggregated forms in lysates of cells harvested at stationary    mutations in other genes. The extent of Sup35p
phase of growth. Cytosol, sucrose and pellet: supernatant,      aggregation should be proportional to the rate of its
intermediate fraction and sedimented material, obtained         prion conversion, and indeed Sup35pPSI+ seeds
after centrifugation of lysates. Blots were immunostained       from `strong' strains caused more ef®cient prion
for Sup35p. B. Semi-quantitative dot±blot analysis of soluble   conversion of Sup35ppsi± in vitro. It is also interest-
Sup35p in lysates of different [PSI+] isolates. Lysates were    ing that the level of soluble Sup35p greatly
prepared from cells harvested at stationary or exponential      depended on the growth phase of [PSI+] cells,
phase of growth. The total protein from soluble fraction of     being much lower at the stationary phase. In the
each lysate was adjusted to 0.66 mg/ml, serially diluted in     `strong' [PSI+] cells, this level constituted, in
four-fold increments and applied to nitrocellulose mem-
                                                                comparison to [psix] cells, 6% at the exponential
brane. Blots were probed with antibody af®nity puri®ed
against the Sup35N2p fragment. Equal levels of the total
                                                                phase and only 1% at stationary phase. This may be
protein in dilutions were con®rmed by staining the same         explained by a decreased rate of synthesis of soluble
membranes by Ponceau S, a non-speci®c protein stain (not        Sup35p in stationary cells. On the other hand, the
shown)                                                          demand for functional Sup35p in stationary cells is
                                                                also likely to be decreased.
[PSI+] determinants independently isolated in one                  Genetic properties allowed us to roughly divide
yeast strain are reproducible in another yeast strain.          [PSI+] into two classes: `strong', mitotically stable
  We observed that the suppressor ef®ciency of                  [PSI+] determinants with strong suppressor pheno-
[PSI+] strains correlated with the extent of Sup35p             type, and `weak', mitotically unstable [PSI+] with
aggregation. Similar observations were made earlier             weak suppressor phenotype. Quantitative analysis
for conventional and `arti®cial' [PSI+] strains                 of the suppressor ef®ciency of independently
(Zhou et al., 1999; Kushnirov et al., 2000). Such a             obtained [PSI+] has shown that they represent a
correlation may be anticipated, since the stop codon            heterogeneous group and may differ from each
readthrough should be inversely related to the levels           other more than 10-fold. The [PSI+] distribution by
of soluble Sup35p. This observation indicates that              suppressor ef®ciency suggested that the number of
the [PSI+] phenotype variation is related to the                [PSI+] strains is greater than two and may be

Copyright # 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.                                                             Yeast 2001; 18: 489±497.
496                                                                          N. V. Kochneva-Pervukhova et al.

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This work was supported by grants from INTAS, the          Kochneva-Pervukhova NV, Poznyakovski AI, Smirnov VN, Ter-
Russian Foundation for Basic Research (to M.D.T.-A.) and     Avanesyan MD 1998. C-terminal truncation of the Sup35
the Wellcome Trust (to V.V.K.).                              protein increases the frequency of de novo generation of a

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