Deregulation of the 19S proteasome complex increases yeast resistance to 4-NQO and oxidative stress via upregulation of Rpn4- and proteasome-dependent stress responsive genes.

The 26S proteasome participates in cell stress responses via its ability to degrade regulatory and damaged proteins. In yeast, mutations in the subunits of the 19S proteasome regulatory subcomplex cause hyper-resistance to 4-nitroquinoline-1-oxide (4-NQO), a chemical mutagen and carcinogen. These data suggest a negative role for the 19S proteasome complex in the cellular response to 4-NQO, although the underlying mechanism is not clear. We proposed that decreased 19S subcomplex activity leads to the stabilisation of Rpn4, a transcription factor and proteasome substrate. In turn, stabilised Rpn4 may upregulate stress-responsive genes that that participate in the response to 4-NQO-induced stress. To test our hypothesis, we impaired the expression of the RPT5 gene, which encodes the ATPase subunit of the 19S subcomplex, by mutating the Rpn4 binding site in its promoter. The mutant strain accumulates polyubiquitinated proteins-a hallmark of compromised proteasome function-and shows hyper-resistance to 4-NQO. We found several groups of genes that conferred resistance to 4-NQO-induced stress and were overexpressed due to the Rpn4 stabilisation and impaired 19S subcomplex function. The upregulated genes are involved in the oxidative and proteotoxic stress response pathways, multidrug resistance, and biosynthesis of cysteine and methionine. Consistently, the mutant strain was hyper-resistant to oxidative stress. Our data imply that the ubiquitin-proteasome system may regulate the cellular response to 4-NQO at the transcriptional level.