PKC1, a protein kinase C homologue of Saccharomyces cerevisiae, participates in microtubule function through the yeast EB1 homologue, BIM1.

BACKGROUND: RSC is a chromatin-remodelling complex of Saccharomyces cerevisiae and essential for growth. Its catalytic subunit is encoded by the NPS1/STH1 gene. At the present time, little is known regarding the cellular function of RSC.
RESULTS: To identify genes with functions related to NPS1, we screened high-copy suppressor genes for the temperature- and thiabendazole (TBZ)-sensitive mutant allele of NPS1, nps1-105. Amongst the suppressors we cloned PKC1/STT1 and BIM1 that encoded a homologue of mammalian protein kinase C and a conserved microtubule binding protein homologous to human EB1, respectively. Both the temperature sensitive mutation of PKC1, stt1, and the bim1 null mutation caused synthetic growth defects with nps1-105. A genetic analysis of the functional relationships between these genes revealed that PKC1 suppressed the defect of nps1-105 through the BIM1 function but not by the activation of the MPK1/MAPK pathway. The stt1 mutation alone showed TBZ sensitivity and delayed the G2-phase progression at semi-permissive temperatures. Both of these stt1 phenotypes were suppressed by the over-expression of BIM1. In addition, stt1 as well as nps1-105, mis-segregated a mini-chromosome at frequencies higher than the wild-type at a permissive temperature. The mis-segregation was enhanced in the nps1-105 stt1 double mutant.
CONCLUSION: These results suggest that Pkc1p plays a role which is relevant to microtubule functions and that this role is mediated by a hitherto unknown PKC signalling pathway and by Bim1p