Using the AKAR3-EV biosensor to assess Sch9p- and PKA-signalling in budding yeast

Budding yeast uses the TORC1-Sch9p and cAMP-PKA signalling pathways to regulate adaptations to changing nutrient environments. Dynamic and single-cell measurements of the activity of these cascades will improve our understanding of the cellular adaptation of yeast. Here, we employed the AKAR3-EV biosensor developed for mammalian cells to measure the cellular phosphorylation status determined by Sch9p and PKA activity in budding yeast. Using various mutant strains and inhibitors, we show that AKAR3-EV measures the Sch9p- and PKA-dependent phosphorylation status in intact yeast cells. At the single-cell level, we found that the phosphorylation responses are homogenous for glucose, sucrose, and fructose, but heterogeneous for mannose. Cells that start to grow after a transition to mannose correspond to higher normalized Förster resonance energy transfer (FRET) levels, in line with the involvement of Sch9p and PKA pathways to stimulate growth-related processes. The Sch9p and PKA pathways have a relatively high affinity for glucose (K(0.5) of 0.24 mM) under glucose-derepressed conditions. Lastly, steady-state FRET levels of AKAR3-EV seem to be independent of growth rates, suggesting that Sch9p- and PKA-dependent phosphorylation activities are transient responses to nutrient transitions. We believe that the AKAR3-EV sensor is an excellent addition to the biosensor arsenal for illuminating cellular adaptation in single yeast cells.