Deregulation of CLN1 and CLN2 in the Saccharomyces cerevisiae whi2 mutant

Wild-type cells of the budding yeast Saccharbmyces cerevisiae arrest in G1 upon nutrient exhaustion. Cell cycle arrest requires the WHI2 gene since whi2 mutants continue to divide and become abnormally small as nutrients are depleted. Here we show that CLN1 and CLN2 transcript levels in a whi2 strain are higher during exponential growth, and persist longer upon starvation, than in an isogenic wild-type strain. In contrast to CLN1 and CLN2, CLN3 levels declined only at very high cell density and were unaffected by the whi2 mutation. Elevated CLN expression is sufficient to explain the whi2 phenotype since ectopic expression of CLN1 in a nutrient-depleted culture caused cells to continue dividing and interfered with the acquisition of heat resistance. These observations show that, either directly or indirectly, Whi2 negatively regulates G1 cyclin expression. Interestingly extremely high levels of Cln1 induced filamentous growth upon nutrient deprivation, suggesting a direct connection between G1 cyclin activity and morphological responses to poor nutrient conditions.