Je. Kurtz et al., New insights into the pyrimidine salvage pathway of Saccharomyces cerevisiae: requirement of six genes for cytidine metabolism, CURR GENET, 36(3), 1999, pp. 130-136
Cytidine metabolism in the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae was analyzed by g
enetic and biochemical approaches. Disruption of a unique ORF (Genbank acce
ssion No. U 20865) bearing homology with eucaryotic or bacterial cytidine d
eaminases abolished cytidine deaminase activity and resulted in 5-fluorocyt
idine resistance. The gene encoding cytidine deaminase will be referred to
as CDD1 (Genbank accession number AF080089). The ability to isolate mutants
resistant to 5-fluorocytidine which mapped to five other loci demonstrated
the existence of a complex cytidine metabolic network. Deciphering this ne
twork revealed several original features:
(1) cytidine entry is mediated by the purine-cytosine transporter (Fcy2p),
(2) cytidine is cleaved into cytosine by the uridine nucleosidase (Urh1p),
(3) cytidine is phosphorylated into CMP by the uridine kinase (Urk1p),
(4) a block in cytosine deaminase (Fcy1p), but not in cytidine deaminase (C
dd1p), constitutes a limiting step in cytidine utilisation as a UMP precurs
or.