Utilization of glutathione as an exogenous sulfur source is independent of γ-glutamyl transpeptidase in the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae: evidence for an alternative gluathione degradation pathway

Abstract

γ-Glutamyl transpeptidase (γ-GT) is the only enzyme known to be responsible for glutathione degradation in living cells. In the present study we provide evidence that the utilization of glutathione can occur in the absence of γ-GT. When disruptions in the CIS2 gene encoding γ-GT were created in met15δ strains, which require organic sulfur sources for growth, the cells were able to grow well with glutathione as the sole sulfur source suggesting that a γ-GT-independent pathway for glutathione degradation exists in yeast cells. The CIS2 gene was strongly repressed by ammonium and derepressed in glutamate medium, and was found to be regulated by the nitrogen regulatory circuit. The utilization of glutathione as a sulfur source was, however, independent of the nitrogen source in the medium, further underlining that the two degradatory pathways were distinct.