Genetic determinants of mitochondrial response to arsenic in yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae

We have used yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae as a tool to identify the importance of mitochondrial processes involved in arsenic-induced carcinogenicity in humans. We screened 466 single-gene knockout strains of yeast S. cerevisiae known to be involved in biogenesis of mitochondria for sodium arsenite (AsIII) and sodium arsenate (AsV) sensitivity. We identified 72 arsenite-sensitive and 81 arsenate-sensitive mutants. We categorized the identified mutants based on the various mitochondrial processes, including nucleic acid metabolism, oxidative phosphorylation, protein synthesis, and vacuolar acidification. We have identified 65 human orthologues to proteins involved in arsenite sensitivity and 3 human orthologues to arsenite resistance. Furthermore, 23 human orthologues to arsenate sensitivity and 20 human orthologues to arsenate-resistant proteins, including MSH3, COX10, GCSH, PPOX, and MTHFD1, were also identified. Using PathwayAssist software, we did cellular network analysis between identified mitochondrial proteins. Three types of interactions, (a) protein-protein interactions, (b) common transcriptional regulators, and (c) common target genes, were identified. We found that RTG (retrograde) genes involved in mitochondria-to-nucleus signaling regulate both arsenite sensitivity and resistance. Furthermore, our study revealed that ABF1, a multifunctional transcriptional factor, regulates genes involved in both arsenite and arsenate sensitivity and resistance. However, REB1 and RAP1 transcriptional regulators were common to only arsenate- and arsenite-sensitive genes, respectively. These studies indicate that multiple pathways involved in mitochondrial biogenesis protect yeast S. cerevisiae from arsenic-induced toxicity. Together, our studies suggest that evolutionary conserved mitochondrial networks identified in yeast S. cerevisiae must play an important role in arsenic-induced carcinogenesis in humans.