Genome-Wide Screening for Genes Associated with FK506 Sensitivity in Fission Yeast

We have been studying calcineurin signal transduction pathway in fission yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe (S. pombe) by developing a genetic screen for mutants that show hypersensitivity to the immunosuppressive calcineurin inhibitor FK506 (tacrolimus). In the present study, to identify nonessential genes that are functionally related to the calcineurin signaling pathway, we performed a genome-wide screen of 3004 haploid deletion strains and confirmed 72 deletion strains to be FK506 sensitive. These 72 genes are classified into nine functional groups to include membrane trafficking (16 genes), signal transduction (10 genes), ubiquitination (8 genes), chromatin remodeling (6 genes), cytokinesis (4 genes), ribosomal protein (3 genes), RNA binding protein (3 genes), and a variety of other known functions (17 genes) or still unknown functions (5 genes) in the biological system. In our previous screening of FK506-sensitive mutants we isolated several membrane-trafficking mutants showing defective cell wall integrity. Here, we further examined the vacuolar fusion, the v-SNARE synaptobrevin Syb1 localization, and the sensitivity to the β-glucan synthase inhibitor micafungin in these 72 FK506-sensitive strains. Results showed that 25 deletion strains exhibited abnormal vacuole fusion, 19 deletion strains exhibited Syb1 mislocalization, and 14 deletion strains exhibited both abnormal vacuole fusion and Syb1 mislocalization, while 42 deletion strains showed both normal vacuole fusion and Syb1 localization. Likewise, 16 deletion strains showed sensitivity to micafungin. Altogether, our present study indicates that calcineurin mediates a plethora of physiological processes in fission yeast, and that calcineurin is extensively involved in cross-talk between signaling pathways.