The yeast cyclins Pc16p and Pc17p are involved in the control of glycogen storage by the cyclin-dependent protein kinase Pho85p.

Pho85p is a yeast cyclin-dependent protein kinase (Cdk) that can interact with 10 cyclins (Pcls) to form multiple protein kinases. The functions of most of the Pcls, including Pc16p and Pc17p, are poorly defined. We report here that Pc16p and Pc17p are involved in the metabolism of the branched storage polysaccharide glycogen under certain conditions and deletion of PCL6 and PCL7 restores glycogen accumulation to a snf1 pcl8 pcl10 triple mutant, paradoxically activating both glycogen synthase and phosphorylase. Pho85p thus affects glycogen accumulation through multiple Cdks composed of different cyclin partners.