The Global Transcriptional Response of Fission Yeast to Hydrogen Sulfide

BACKGROUND: Hydrogen sulfide (H(2)S) is a newly identified member of the small family of gasotransmitters that are endogenous gaseous signaling molecules that have a fundamental role in human biology and disease. Although it is a relatively recent discovery and the mechanism of H(2)S activity is not completely understood, it is known to be involved in a number of cellular processes; H(2)S can affect ion channels, transcription factors and protein kinases in mammals. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: In this paper, we have used fission yeast as a model organism to study the global gene expression profile in response to H(2)S by microarray. We initially measured the genome-wide transcriptional response of fission yeast to H(2)S. Through the functional classification of genes whose expression profile changed in response to H(2)S, we found that H(2)S mainly influences genes that encode putative or known stress proteins, membrane transporters, cell cycle/meiotic proteins, transcription factors and respiration protein in the mitochondrion. Our analysis showed that there was a significant overlap between the genes affected by H(2)S and the stress response. We identified that the target genes of the MAPK pathway respond to H(2)S; we also identified that a number of transporters respond to H(2)S, these include sugar/carbohydrate transporters, ion transporters, and amino acid transporters. We found many mitochondrial genes to be down regulated upon H(2)S treatment and that H(2)S can reduce mitochondrial oxygen consumption. CONCLUSION/SIGNIFICANCE: This study identifies potential molecular targets of the signaling molecule H(2)S in fission yeast and provides clues about the identity of homologues human proteins and will further the understanding of the cellular role of H(2)S in human diseases.