Genetic evidence for a functional interaction between Saccharomyces cerevisiae CDC24 and CDC42.

Cdc24p and Cdc42p are involved in the control of cell polarity during the Saccharomyces cerevisiae cell cycle. Cdc42p is a member of the Ras superfamily of GTPases and Cdc24p displays limited amino-acid sequence similarity with the Dbl proto-oncoprotein, which acts to stimulate guanine-nucleotide exchange on human Cdc42p. We have performed several genetic experiments to test whether Cdc24p and Cdc42p interact within the cell. First, overexpression of Cdc24p suppressed the dominant-negative cdc42D118A allele. Second, overexpression of wild-type CDC24 and CDC42 genes together was a lethal event resulting in a morphological phenotype of large, round, unbudded cells, indicating a loss of cell polarity. Third, a cdc24ts cdc42ts double mutant exhibited a synthetic-lethal phenotype at the semi-permissive temperature of 30 degrees C. These data suggest that Cdc24p and Cdc42p interact within the cell and that Cdc24p may be involved in the regulation of Cdc42p activity.