Rewiring of the protein-protein-metabolite interactome during the diauxic shift in yeast

In budding yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae, the switch from aerobic fermentation to respiratory growth is separated by a period of growth arrest, known as the diauxic shift, accompanied by a significant metabolic rewiring, including the derepression of gluconeogenesis and the establishment of mitochondrial respiration. Previous studies reported hundreds of proteins and tens of metabolites accumulating differentially across the diauxic shift transition. To assess the differences in the protein-protein (PPIs) and protein-metabolite interactions (PMIs) yeast samples harvested in the glucose-utilizing, fermentative phase, ethanol-utilizing and early stationary respiratory phases were analysed using isothermal shift assay (iTSA) and a co-fractionation mass spectrometry approach, PROMIS. Whereas iTSA monitors changes in protein stability and is informative towards protein interaction status, PROMIS uses co-elution to delineate putative PPIs and PMIs. The resulting dataset comprises 1627 proteins and 247 metabolites, hundreds of proteins and tens of metabolites characterized by differential thermal stability and/or fractionation profile, constituting a novel resource to be mined for the regulatory PPIs and PMIs. The examples discussed here include (i) dissociation of the core and regulatory particle of the proteasome in the early stationary phase, (ii) the differential binding of a co-factor pyridoxal phosphate to the enzymes of amino acid metabolism and (iii) the putative, phase-specific interactions between proline-containing dipeptides and enzymes of central carbon metabolism.