Peculiarities of amino acid transport in Schizosaccharomyces pombe: effects of growth medium.

Transport systems for amino acids in the wild-type strain of Schizosaccharomyces pombe are not constitutive. During growth on different media no transport of acidic, neutral and basic amino acids is detectable. To acquire the ability to transport amino acids, cells must be preincubated with a metabolic source of energy, such as glucose. The appearance of transport activity is associated with protein synthesis (suppression by cycloheximide) at all phases of culture growth. After such preincubation the initial rate of amino acid uptake depends on the phase of growth of the culture and on the amount of glucose in the growth medium but not on the nitrogen source used. L-Proline and 2-aminoisobutyric acid are practically not transported under any of the conditions tested.