Stress-seventy subfamily A 4, A member of HSP70, confers yeast cadmium tolerance in the loss of mitochondria pyruvate carrier 1.

Mitochondrial pyruvate carrier (MPC), which transports pyruvate into mitochondria, is a key regulatory element in the material metabolism and energy metabolism. Since MPC was firstly identified in yeast in 2012, many groups have investigated the function of MPC. As MPC is a classic material transporter, the focus of previous studies has been placed on its role in pyruvate transport. In this study, we discovered a novel Cd resistant gene, stress-seventy subfamily A 4 (SSA4), which can recover the Cd sensitive phenotype in the yeast MPC1 mutant strain. It is suggested that, except for adjusting metabolism, MPC can regulate stress tolerance by regulating downstream genes in yeast. Previously, we discovered a Cd related gene, AGP30, which is associated with MPC1 in Arabidopsis. These results indicate that MPC can regulate Cd tolerance through downstream genes in both Arabidopsis and yeast. This study will pave the way for further exploring the bypass pathways of MPC at the molecular level, and the interaction between MPC and the downstream genes in biology.