The genomic landscape of compensatory evolution.

Adaptive evolution is generally assumed to progress through the accumulation of beneficial mutations. However, as deleterious mutations are common in natural populations, they generate a strong selection pressure to mitigate their detrimental effects through compensatory genetic changes. This process can potentially influence directions of adaptive evolution by enabling evolutionary routes that are otherwise inaccessible. Therefore, the extent to which compensatory mutations shape genomic evolution is of central importance. Here, we studied the capacity of the baker's yeast genome to compensate the complete loss of genes during evolution, and explored the long-term consequences of this process. We initiated laboratory evolutionary experiments with over 180 haploid baker's yeast genotypes, all of which initially displayed slow growth owing to the deletion of a single gene. Compensatory evolution following gene loss was rapid and pervasive: 68% of the genotypes reached near wild-type fitness through accumulation of adaptive mutations elsewhere in the genome. As compensatory mutations have associated fitness costs, genotypes with especially low fitnesses were more likely to be subjects of compensatory evolution. Genomic analysis revealed that as compensatory mutations were generally specific to the functional defect incurred, convergent evolution at the molecular level was extremely rare. Moreover, the majority of the gene expression changes due to gene deletion remained unrestored. Accordingly, compensatory evolution promoted genomic divergence of parallel evolving populations. However, these different evolutionary outcomes are not phenotypically equivalent, as they generated diverse growth phenotypes across environments. Taken together, these results indicate that gene loss initiates adaptive genomic changes that rapidly restores fitness, but this process has substantial pleiotropic effects on cellular physiology and evolvability upon environmental change. Our work also implies that gene content variation across species could be partly due to the action of compensatory evolution rather than the passive loss of genes.

The eIF3c/NIP1 PCI domain interacts with RNA and RACK1/ASC1 and promotes assembly of translation preinitiation complexes.

Several subunits of the multifunctional eukaryotic translation initiation factor 3 (eIF3) contain well-defined domains. Among them is the conserved bipartite PCI domain, typically serving as the principal scaffold for multisubunit 26S proteasome lid, CSN and eIF3 complexes, which constitutes most of the C-terminal region of the c/NIP1 subunit. Interestingly, the c/NIP1-PCI domain is exceptional in that its deletion, despite being lethal, does not affect eIF3 integrity. Here, we show that a short C-terminal truncation and two clustered mutations directly disturbing the PCI domain produce lethal or slow growth phenotypes and significantly reduce amounts of 40S-bound eIF3 and eIF5 in vivo. The extreme C-terminus directly interacts with blades 1-3 of the small ribosomal protein RACK1/ASC1, which is a part of the 40S head, and, consistently, deletion of the ASC1 coding region likewise affects eIF3 association with ribosomes. The PCI domain per se shows strong but unspecific binding to RNA, for the first time implicating this typical protein-protein binding domain in mediating protein-RNA interactions also. Importantly, as our clustered mutations severely reduce RNA binding, we conclude that the c/NIP1 C-terminal region forms an important intermolecular bridge between eIF3 and the 40S head region by contacting RACK1/ASC1 and most probably 18S rRNA.

Hsp70-associated chaperones have a critical role in buffering protein production costs.

Proteins are necessary for cellular growth. Concurrently, however, protein production has high energetic demands associated with transcription and translation. Here, we propose that activity of molecular chaperones shape protein burden, that is the fitness costs associated with expression of unneeded proteins. To test this hypothesis, we performed a genome-wide genetic interaction screen in baker's yeast. Impairment of transcription, translation, and protein folding rendered cells hypersensitive to protein burden. Specifically, deletion of specific regulators of the Hsp70-associated chaperone network increased protein burden. In agreement with expectation, temperature stress, increased mistranslation and a chemical misfolding agent all substantially enhanced protein burden. Finally, unneeded protein perturbed interactions between key components of the Hsp70-Hsp90 network involved in folding of native proteins. We conclude that specific chaperones contribute to protein burden. Our work indicates that by minimizing the damaging impact of gratuitous protein overproduction, chaperones enable tolerance to massive changes in genomic expression.

Analysis of insertion into secondary attachment sites by phage lambda and by int mutants with altered recombination specificity.

When phage lambda lysogenizes a cell that lacks the primary bacterial attachment site, integrase catalyzes insertion of the phage chromosome into one of many secondary sites. Here, we characterize the secondary sites that are preferred by wild-type lambda and by lambda int mutants with altered insertion specificity. The sequences of these secondary sites resembled that of the primary site: they contained two imperfect inverted repeats flanking a short spacer. The imperfect inverted repeats of the primary site bind integrase, while the 7 bp spacer, or overlap region, swaps strands with a complementary sequence in the phage attachment site during recombination. We found substantial sequence conservation in the imperfect inverted repeats of secondary sites, and nearly perfect conservation in the leftmost three bases of the overlap region. By contrast, the rightmost bases of the overlap region were much more variable. A phage with an altered overlap region preferred to insert into secondary sites with the corresponding bases. We suggest that this difference between the left and right segments is a result of the defined order of strand exchanges during integrase-promoted recombination. This suggestion accounts for the unexpected segregation pattern of the overlap region observed after insertion into several secondary sites. Some of the altered specificity int mutants differed from wild-type in secondary site preference, but we were unable to identify simple sequence motifs that account for these differences. We propose that insertion into secondary sites is a step in the evolutionary change of phage insertion specificity and present a model of how this might occur.

The indispensable N-terminal half of eIF3j/HCR1 cooperates with its structurally conserved binding partner eIF3b/PRT1-RRM and with eIF1A in stringent AUG selection.

Despite recent progress in our understanding of the numerous functions of individual subunits of eukaryotic translation initiation factor (eIF) 3, little is known on the molecular level. Using NMR spectroscopy, we determined the first solution structure of an interaction between eIF3 subunits. We revealed that a conserved tryptophan residue in the human eIF3j N-terminal acidic motif (NTA) is held in the helix alpha1 and loop 5 hydrophobic pocket of the human eIF3b RNA recognition motif (RRM). Mutating the corresponding "pocket" residues in its yeast orthologue reduces cellular growth rate, eliminates eIF3j/HCR1 association with eIF3b/PRT1 in vitro and in vivo, affects 40S occupancy of eIF3, and produces a leaky scanning defect indicative of a deregulation of the AUG selection process. Unexpectedly, we found that the N-terminal half of eIF3j/HCR1 containing the NTA is indispensable and sufficient for wild-type growth of yeast cells. Furthermore, we demonstrate that deletion of either j/HCR1 or its N-terminal half only, or mutation of the key tryptophan residues results in the severe leaky scanning phenotype partially suppressible by overexpressed eIF1A, which is thought to stabilize properly formed preinitiation complexes at the correct start codon. These findings indicate that eIF3j/HCR1 remains associated with the scanning preinitiation complexes and does not dissociate from the small ribosomal subunit upon mRNA recruitment, as previously believed. Finally, we provide further support for earlier mapping of the ribosomal binding site for human eIF3j by identifying specific interactions of eIF3j/HCR1 with small ribosomal proteins RPS2 and RPS23 located in the vicinity of the mRNA entry channel. Taken together, we propose that eIF3j/HCR1 closely cooperates with the eIF3b/PRT1 RRM and eIF1A on the ribosome to ensure proper formation of the scanning-arrested conformation required for stringent AUG recognition.

eIF3a cooperates with sequences 5' of uORF1 to promote resumption of scanning by post-termination ribosomes for reinitiation on GCN4 mRNA.

Yeast initiation factor eIF3 (eukaryotic initiation factor 3) has been implicated in multiple steps of translation initiation. Previously, we showed that the N-terminal domain (NTD) of eIF3a interacts with the small ribosomal protein RPS0A located near the mRNA exit channel, where eIF3 is proposed to reside. Here, we demonstrate that a partial deletion of the RPS0A-binding domain of eIF3a impairs translation initiation and reduces binding of eIF3 and associated eIFs to native preinitiation complexes in vivo. Strikingly, it also severely blocks the induction of GCN4 translation that occurs via reinitiation. Detailed examination unveiled a novel reinitiation defect resulting from an inability of 40S ribosomes to resume scanning after terminating at the first upstream ORF (uORF1). Genetic analysis reveals a functional interaction between the eIF3a-NTD and sequences 5' of uORF1 that is critically required to enhance reinitiation. We further demonstrate that these stimulatory sequences must be positioned precisely relative to the uORF1 stop codon and that reinitiation efficiency after uORF1 declines with its increasing length. Together, our results suggest that eIF3 is retained on ribosomes throughout uORF1 translation and, upon termination, interacts with its 5' enhancer at the mRNA exit channel to stabilize mRNA association with post-termination 40S subunits and enable resumption of scanning for reinitiation downstream.

Protection of antiterminator RNA by the transcript elongation complex.

Nascent transcripts encoded by the putL and putR sites of phage HK022 bind the transcript elongation complex and suppress termination at downstream transcription terminators. We report here that the chemical stability of putL RNA is considerably greater than that of the typical Escherichia coli message because the elongation complex protects this RNA from degradation. When binding to the elongation complex was prevented by mutation of either putL or RNA polymerase, RNA stability decreased more than 50-fold. The functional modification conferred by putL RNA on the elongation complex is also long-lived: the efficiency of terminator suppression remained high for at least 10 kb from the putL site. We find that RNase III rapidly and efficiently cleaved the transcript just downstream of the putL sequences, but such cleavage changed neither the stability of putL RNA nor the efficiency of antitermination. These results argue that the continuity of the RNA that connects put sequences to the growing point is not required for persistence of the antiterminating modification in vivo.

Role of secondary attachment sites in changing the specificity of site-specific recombination.

We previously proposed that lambdoid phages change their insertion specificity by adapting their integrases to sequences found in secondary attachment sites. To test this model, we quantified recombination between partners that carried sequences from secondary attachment sites catalyzed by wild-type and by mutant integrases with altered specificities. The results are consistent with the model, and indicate differential core site usage in excision and integration.