Reversibility characteristics of glucose-induced trehalase activation associated with the breaking of dormancy in yeast ascospores.

The breaking of dormancy in yeast ascospores by addition of glucose is associated with a sudden tenfold increase in the activity of trehalase. The rapid activation of trehalase is followed by a slower inactivation process which is greatly retarded in the presence of nitrogen sources and cycloheximide. When glucose is washed away from the spores after some time and the spores resuspended in glucose-free medium, the trehalase activity decreases sharply. Subsequent addition of new glucose partially reactivates the enzyme. The extent of reactivation decreases further with each subsequent activation/inactivation step. Changing the duration of the inactivation periods has no effect on this diminution of the reversibility. However, prolonging the duration of the activation step speeds up the loss of reversibility. On the other hand, addition of a nitrogen source or cycloheximide completely prevents the loss of reversibility. The results of the reversibility studies are in agreement with the phosphorylation mechanism which has been proposed for the underlying molecular process of trehalase activation. Apparently, they are also in agreement with proteolytic breakdown being responsible for the inactivation of trehalase after its initial activation. However, the effect of cycloheximide and nitrogen sources, at least in ascospores, does not appear to be due to inhibition or repression of protease synthesis, respectively, since the addition in the presence of glucose of a nitrogen source after trehalase inactivation immediately reactivates the enzyme completely.