Expression of a plant serine O-acetyltransferase inSaccharomyces cerevisiae confers osmotic tolerance and creates an alternative pathway for cysteine biosynthesis

Screening of a sugar beet (Beta vulgaris cv. Dita) cDNA library for clones able to confer osmotic tolerance to the osmosensitive gpd1 mutant of Saccharomyces cerevisiae identified a novel serine O-acetyltransferase (BvSAT; EC 2.3.1.30). This enzyme is involved in cysteine biosynthesis in plants and bacteria, producing O-acetylserine, which is converted into cysteine in a reaction catalysed by O-acetylserine sulphydrylase (EC 4.2.99.8). This pathway is not conserved in yeast, where cysteine is synthesized in a four-step pathway starting with homoserine and having O-acetylhomoserine, homocysteine and cystathionine as intermediates. Expression of BvSAT in yeast takes advantage of the activity …