Alteration in the amino acid content of yeast during growth under various nutritional conditions

Yeast cells grown under optimal and suboptimal concentrations of biotin were analyzed for the amino acid content of their soluble pool and cellular protein. Optimally grown yeast cells exhibited a maximum amino acid content after 18 hr of growth. Biotin-deficient cells were depleted of all amino acids at 26 and 43 hr, with alanine, arginine, aspartate, cysteine, glutamate, isoleucine, leucine, lysine, methionine, serine, threonine, and valine being present in less than half the concentration observed in biotin-optimal cells. At early time intervals, the amino acid pool of biotin-deficient yeast contained lower concentrations of all amino acids except alanine. After more prolonged incubation, several amino acids accumulated in the pool of biotin-deficient yeast, but citrulline and ornithine accumulated to appreciable levels. The addition of aspartate to the growth medium resulted in a decrease in the amino acid content of biotin-optimal cells but caused a marked increase in the concentration of amino acids in biotin-deficient cells. The pools of biotin-deficient yeast grown in the presence of aspartate displayed a marked reduction in every amino acid with the exception of aspartate itself. These data provide evidence that the amino acid content of yeast cells and their free amino acid pools are markedly affected by biotin deficiency as well as by supplementation with aspartate, indicating that aspartate plays a major role in the nitrogen economy of yeast under both normal as well as abnormal nutritional conditions.