Mechanism of control of adenylate cyclase activity in yeast by fermentable sugars and carbonyl cyanide m-chlorophenyl-hydrazone

The phosphorylation of fructose-1,6-bisphosphatase is preceded by a transient increase in the intracellular level of cyclic AMP which activates a cyclic AMP-dependent protein kinase (Pohlig, G., and Holzer, H. (1985) J. Biol. Chem. 260, 13818-13823). Possible mechanisms by which sugars or ionophores might activate adenylate cyclase and thereby lead to an increase in cyclic AMP concentrations were studied. Studies with permeabilized yeast cells demonstrated that neither sugar intermediates nor carbonyl cyanide m-chlorophenylhydrazone are able to increase adenylate cyclase activity. In the light of striking differences of the effects of fermentable sugars and of carbonyl cyanide m-chlorophenylhydrazone on parameters characterizing the membrane potential, it seems not reasonable that the activity of adenylate is under control of the membrane potential. Rapid quenching of 9-aminoacridine fluorescence after addition of fermentable sugars to starved yeast cells indicated an intracellular acidification. The 31P NMR technique showed a fast drop of the intracellular pH from 6.9 to 6.55 or 6.4 immediately after addition of glucose or carbonyl cyanide m-chlorophenylhydrazone. The time course of the decrease of the cytosolic pH coincides with the transient increase of cyclic AMP concentration and the 50% inactivation of fructose-1,6-bisphosphatase under the conditions of the NMR experiments. Kinetic studies of adenylate cyclase activity showed an approximately 2-fold increase of activity when the pH was decreased from 7.0 to 6.5, which is the result of a decrease in the apparent Km for ATP with no change in Vmax. These studies suggest that activation of adenylate cyclase by decrease in the cytosolic pH starts a chain of events leading to accumulation of cyclic AMP and phosphorylation of fructose-1,6-bisphosphatase