Resistance to Arsenite and Arsenate in Saccharomyces cerevisiae Arises through the Subtelomeric Expansion of a Cluster of Yeast Genes

Irene Stefanini, Monica Di Paola, Gianni Liti, Andrea Marranci, Federico Sebastiani, Enrico Casalone and Duccio Cavalieri
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Irene Stefanini: Department of Life Sciences and Systems Biology, University of Turin, 10123 Turin, Italy
Monica Di Paola: Department of Biology, University of Florence, Sesto Fiorentino, 50019 Florence, Italy
Gianni Liti: National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS), National Institute of Health and Medical Research (INSERM), Institute for Research on Cancer and Aging (IRCAN), Université Côte d’Azur, 06103 Nice, France
Andrea Marranci: Core Research Laboratory, Oncogenomics Unit, Istituto di Fisiologia Clinica, Institute for Cancer Research and Pre-vention (ISPRO), 56124 Pisa, Italy
Federico Sebastiani: Institute for Sustainable Plant Protection, National Research Council (IPSP-CNR), Sesto Fiorentino, 50019 Florence, Italy
Enrico Casalone: Department of Biology, University of Florence, Sesto Fiorentino, 50019 Florence, Italy
Duccio Cavalieri: Department of Biology, University of Florence, Sesto Fiorentino, 50019 Florence, Italy

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 13, 1-15

Abstract: Arsenic is one of the most prevalent toxic elements in the environment, and its toxicity affects every organism. Arsenic resistance has mainly been observed in microorganisms, and, in bacteria, it has been associated with the presence of the Ars operon. In Saccharomyces cerevisiae , three genes confer arsenic resistance: ARR1 , ARR2 , and ARR3 . Unlike bacteria, in which the presence of the Ars genes confers per se resistance to arsenic, most of the S. cerevisiae isolates present the three ARR genes, regardless of whether the strain is resistant or sensitive to arsenic. To assess the genetic features that make natural S. cerevisiae strains resistant to arsenic, we used a combination of comparative genomic hybridization, whole-genome sequencing, and transcriptomics profiling with microarray analyses. We observed that both the presence and the genomic location of multiple copies of the whole cluster of ARR genes were central to the escape from subtelomeric silencing and the acquisition of resistance to arsenic. As a result of the repositioning, the ARR genes were expressed even in the absence of arsenic. In addition to their relevance in improving our understanding of the mechanism of arsenic resistance in yeast, these results provide evidence for a new cluster of functionally related genes that are independently duplicated and translocated.

Keywords: arsenic; resistance; Saccharomyces cerevisiae; ARR1; ARR2; ARR3; duplicated DNA; translocated DNA (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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