Characterization of Saccharomyces cerevisiae genes encoding subunits of cyclic AMP-dependent protein kinase

Mutations in the SRA1 or SRA3 gene eliminate the requirement for either RAS gene (RAS1 or RAS2) in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. We cloned SRA1 and SRA3 and determined their DNA sequences. SRA1 encodes the regulatory subunit of the cyclic AMP (cAMP)-dependent protein kinase and therefore is identical to REG1 and BCY1. This gene is not essential, but its deletion confers many traits: reduction of glycogen accumulation, temperature sensitivity, reduced growth rate on maltose and sucrose, inability to grow on galactose and nonfermentable carbon sources, and nitrogen starvation intolerance. SRA3 is homologous to protein kinases that phosphorylate serine and threonine and likely encodes the catalytic subunit of the cAMP-dependent protein kinase. The wild-type SRA3 gene either triplicated in the chromosome or on episomal, low-copy plasmids behaves like spontaneous dominant SRA3 mutations by suppressing ras2-530 (RAS2::LEU2 disruption), cdc25, and cdc35 mutations. These findings indicate that the yeast RAS genes are dispensable if there is constitutive cAMP-dependent protein kinase activity.