K
+ is the major cation in cells, present at submolar concentrations (0.05–0.2 M) in the cytoplasm, concentrated ~1000-fold relative to the external environment (
Rodriguez-Navarro, 2000,
Perkins and Gadd 1993). High intracellular levels of K
+ are required for replication and translation (
Lubin, 1964,
Lubin and Ennis, 1964,
Lubin 1967). Further, K
+ is required for uptake of nutrients, disposal of metabolic by-products, and cell–cell communication in multicellular organisms, particularly in neural tissue. In addition, asymmetric K
+ fluxes very early in vertebrate development are required for left-right asymmetry (
Levin et al., 2002,
Raya et al., 2004), dependent upon Kir4.1 and the H
+/K
+-ATPase (
Aw et al., 2008), while later in development, formation of the neural crest depends upon the activity of cation/H
+-antiporters (
Manohar et al., 2010). In yeast at least, K
+ is also required for cell cycle progression (
Masuda et al., 2000), but it is not currently known whether this is a feature of cell cycle control in higher eukaryotes.
In yeast, K
+ import is accomplished primarily by the K
+ influx transporter,
Trk1 (
Gaber, 1992,
Ko et al., 1990,
Ko and Gaber, 1991,
Ramos et al., 1994). A paralog of
Trk1, named
Trk2, has been referred to as a low- or medium-affinity transporter (
Ko et al., 1990), which is apparently only expressed under specific conditions, including low external K
+ or low external pH (
Michel et al., 2006). The protein
Qdr2 may also play a minor role in Trk-independent K
+ uptake (
Vargas et al., 2007).
trk1Δtrk2Δ mutants are sensitive to toxic cations including hygromycin B and show deficient K
+ uptake (
Madrid et al., 1998,
Navarrete et al., 2010).
sat4/hal4Δhal5Δ double mutants also exhibit cation sensitivity and deficient K
+ uptake (
Pérez-Valle et al., 2007). Overexpression of
SAT4/HAL4 or
HAL5, which encode serine/threonine kinases, increases tolerance to toxic cations; however, overexpression of these genes in a
trk1Δtrk2Δ background is without effect, suggesting that
Hal4 and
Hal5 act to regulate the activity or stability of
Trk1 and
Trk2 (
Mulet et al., 1999). Recent work also implicates calcineurin as a factor in the regulation of
Trk1 via the Hal proteins (
Casado et al., 2010).
Other regulators of Trk-dependent K
+ import include the serine/threonine phosphatases
Ppz1 and
Ppz2. The Ppz proteins have diverse functions in ion homeostasis, cell wall maintenance, and regulation of cell growth and division (
Posas et al., 1995,
Clotet et al., 1999).
PPZ1 overexpression decreases uptake of the K
+ homolog,
86Rb
+, while
ppz1Δppz2Δ mutants are resistant to toxic cations (
Yenush et al., 2002).
Hal3 directly interacts with the Ppz proteins, decreasing their phosphatase activity, and cells lacking functional
Hal3 demonstrate decreased
86Rb
+ uptake compared to wild-type cells (
Yenush et al., 2002,
De Nadal et al., 1999,
Yenush et al., 2005).
Vhs3, homologous to
Hal3, also negatively regulates
Ppz1 activity (
Ruiz et al., 2004a).
In addition to the kinases and phosphatases mentioned above, we previously found that loss of the guanine-nucleotide binding protein gene,
ARL1, causes increased sensitivity to toxic cations including hygromcyin B, correlating with decreased K
+ influx, which is suppressed by additional K
+ in the medium (
Munson et al., 2004a). Although
Arl1 in both yeast and mammals has documented roles in regulation of membrane traffic (
Rosenwald et al., 2002,
Love et al., 2004,
Lu et al., 2001,
Lowe et al., 1996,
Munro, 2005,
Panic et al., 2003,
Liu et al., 2005,
Behnia et al., 2004),
Arl1 does not control traffic of
Trk1: loss of
ARL1 has no effect on steady levels or localization of
Trk1 to the plasma membrane (
Munson et al., 2004a). In addition, loss of
ARL1 has no effect on localization of
Trk1 to lipid microdomains (this work). To identify other genes which potentially play a role K
+ homeostasis, we screened the homozygous diploid deletion collection of viable yeast mutants (
Winzeler et al., 1999) for strains exhibiting a hygromycin B-sensitive phenotype. We identified a number of such mutants and found that many of them had deletions of genes previously shown to encode regulators of membrane traffic.
The connection between K
+ and membrane traffic was first identified more than 20 years ago, when it was shown that K
+ was important in mammalian cells for clathrin-dependent endocytosis (
Heuser and Anderson, 1989,
Larkin et al., 1986,
Larkin et al., 1985,
Larkin et al., 1983). It has been suggested that K
+ is required for the activity of the clathrin uncoating ATPase, Hsc70 (
O'Brien and Mckay, 1995,
Wilbanks and Mckay 1995). Newer data show that depletion of intracellular K
+ also affects clathrin-independent endocytosis (mediated primarily by caveolae) (
Vercauteren et al., 2010) and that effects of K
+-depletion on endocytic functions are cell-type specific (
Vercauteren et al., 2010), suggesting there is at least one other mechanism responsible in addition to possible inhibition of the uncoating ATPase. Work in mammalian cells has also shown that aminoglycoside antibiotics like hygromycin B bind to coatomer subunits (
Hudson and Draper 1997). Membrane traffic in yeast is controlled by regulation of cytosolic
vs. lumenal pH and K
+ specifically by the activity of
Nhx1/
Vps44, a Na
+-K
+/H
+ exchanger localized to late endosomal membranes (
Ali et al., 2004,
Brett et al., 2005). Together, these data demonstrate a role for K
+ in ensuring effective membrane trafficking. It would therefore be reasonable for gene products involved in membrane traffic to have a role in modulating K
+ for the purpose of optimizing membrane traffic. Indeed, one previous study suggested a role for the SNARE protein SYP121 in K
+ channel gating in
Arabidopsis (
Honsbein et al., 2009). In general, however, the molecular details that underlie connections between K
+ homeostasis and membrane traffic have not been fully elucidated.
In this paper, therefore, by identification of numerous membrane traffic regulators as mediators of K
+ influx, we have made a step toward delineating these connections. While others have also discovered that membrane traffic mutants are sensitive to hygromycin B (recent examples include [
Banuelos et al. (2010),
Dudley et al. (2005), and
Conboy and Cyert (2000)], the novel aspects of this work are the findings that many of these mutants show deficient K
+ uptake and that some phenotypes can be suppressed by the addition of excess K
+ in the medium. However, for the majority of mutants examined, although defective for K
+ uptake, wild-type levels of
Trk1, correct localization of
Trk1 to the plasma membrane fraction, and correct localization to lipid microdomains were observed.
Thus, our new results demonstrate that a number of different membrane traffic genes in addition to
Arl1 also regulate K
+ uptake. However, our results are consistent with a model in which defective regulation of
Trk1 activity occurs rather than defective localization.