In Saccharomyces cerevisiae, high concentrations of polyP accumulate in the vacuole during growth. Pho91 serves as a vacuolar Pi transporter that exports Pi from the vacuolar lumen

to the cytosol and negatively regulates polyP accumulation (Hurlimann et al., 2007). Although we have not yet obtained direct evidence that YjbB has a Pi-export activity, we propose that YjbB, whose N-terminal half contains Na+/Pi cotransporter domains, also functions as a Pi exporter and thus ZD1839 in vitro reduces polyP accumulation. However, it remains a question of considerable interest as to what factors control the direction of Pi transport. We cannot exclude the possibility that the PhoU domains of YjbB play an important role in Pi export. Some transporters and channels possess regulatory domains in addition to the transmembrane domains. For example, many bacterial K+ transporters and channels, such as the K+ efflux channel KefC, are controlled by a Ktn domain (Roosild et

al., 2002). In S. cerevisiae, the SPX domain of the low-affinity Pi transporter regulates transport activity through a physical interaction with the regulatory protein (Hurlimann et al., 2009). Although the exact mechanism is poorly understood, PhoU homologs play an important and conserved role in Pi signaling and metabolism. Indeed, a recent study showed that PhoU modulates the activity of the Pst transporter BAY 57-1293 datasheet (Rice et al., 2009). The PhoU domains of YjbB might also be involved in the sensing of the intracellular Pi concentration and the regulation of exporting activity. selleck The ‘phosphate balance’ between Pi and polyP plays an important role in the maintenance of the intracellular Pi concentration. Cells must use energy to convert Pi to ATP for the synthesis of polyP. PolyP is degraded and Pi can be fully reused when needed. On the other hand, the export of excess Pi by YjbB would not require energy input because intracellular Pi concentrations normally far exceed extracellular ones. However, exported

Pi would occasionally be lost. Pi export-based control would thus appear more prompt, but less flexible in the case of fluctuating Pi availability than polyP-based control. Because the levels of polyP were lower in the YjbB overproducer, we expected that the polyP levels would be higher in a chromosomal yjbB mutant. However, we did not observe such an increase in MT1011, whose polyP levels were less than 1 nmol (as Pi residues) mg−1 protein when it grew on 2 × YT medium. Furthermore, we did not detect promoter activity in the yjbB upstream fragment under Pi-rich or Pi-limited conditions when the fragment was inserted into a promoter-probe vector (data not shown). We hypothesized that the Pi export-based control may have been largely replaced by a polyP-based one in E. coli during the course of evolution.