Isolation and characterization of a phosphoprotein phosphatase-deficient mutant in yeast

The ppd1 mutant of yeast, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, was isolated as a suppressor of the cyr2 mutation which caused alteration of the catalytic subunit of cAMP-dependent protein kinase. Three peaks of phosphoprotein phosphatase activity (peak I, II and III) were identified by DEAE-Sephacel chromatography of crude extracts of the wild-type strain. The ppd1 mutant was deficient in peak III phosphoprotein phosphatase activity. The peak III enzyme efficiently utilized the phosphorylated forms of NAD-dependent glutamate dehydrogenase and trehalase as substrate. The ppd1 mutation did not suppress the cyr1, CYR3 or ras1 ras2 mutations. The ppd1 locus was located on chromosome II and had identical characteristics with glc1. The ppd1 mutation suppressed the G1 arrest caused by nutritional limitation, but maintained sensitivity to mating pheromone. In diploids homozygous for the ppd1 mutation, no premeiotic DNA replication and commitment to intragenic recombination occurred and no spores were formed, suggesting that the accumulation of phosphorylated proteins in the absence of one of the phosphoprotein phosphatases is required for mitosis but not for the initiation of meiosis.