Isolation and characterization of yeast mutants deficient in adenylate cyclase and cAMP-dependent protein kinase.

Mutants of Saccharomyces cerevisiae that require cAMP for growth have been isolated. Some of the mutants isolated were deficient in adenylate cyclase activity and mapped at a locus, cyr1, located near the centromere of chromosome X. Growth of cells carrying the cyr1 mutation was arrested at the G1 phase of the yeast cell cycle in the absence of cAMP. The cyr1 mutation was suppressed by a secondary mutation designated bcy1. The bcy1 mutation bypassed the need for cAMP for growth. The bcy1 mutants had extremely low levels of cAMP-binding protein and cAMP-dependent protein kinase but produced a high level of cAMP-independent protein kinase. The results indicate that cAMP is an essential factor for yeast cells to proceed through the cell cycle via the activation of protein kinase.