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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Microbiol.
Sec. Microbial Physiology and Metabolism
Volume 15 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2024.1438900

The gene YEF3 function encoding translation elongation factor eEF3 is partially conserved across Fungi

Provisionally accepted
Giovanna Maldonado Giovanna Maldonado 1Alejandra García Alejandra García 1Saturnino Herrero Saturnino Herrero 2Irene Castano Irene Castano 3Michael Altmann Michael Altmann 4Reinhard Fischer Reinhard Fischer 2Greco Hernández Greco Hernández 1*
  • 1 National Institute of Cancerology (INCAN), Mexico City, Mexico
  • 2 Institut für Angewandte Biowissenschaften., Karlsruhe, Germany
  • 3 Instituto Potosino de Investigación Científica y Tecnológica (IPICYT), San Luis Potosí, San Luis Potosí, Mexico
  • 4 Institut für Biochemie und Molekulare Medizin, Bern, Switzerland

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Translation is a fundamental process of life. In eukaryotes, the elongation step of translation is highly conserved and is driven by eukaryotic translation elongation factors (eEF)1A and eEF2. A significant variation of the elongation is the activity of elongation factor eEF3 in Saccharomyces cerevisiae encoded by the gene YEF3 with orthologs in all fungal species, a few algae, and some protists. In S. cerevisiae, YEF3 is an essential gene and eEF3 plays a critical role in translation elongation, as it promotes binding of the ternary complex acylated-tRNA-eEF1A-GTP to the aminoacyl (A) site of the ribosome, the release of uncharged tRNAs after peptide translocation, and ribosome recycling. Even though YEF3 was discovered more than 40 years ago, eEF3 has been characterized almost exclusively in S. cerevisiae. We undertook an in vivo genetic approach to assess the functional conservation of eEF3 across phylogenetically distant fungal species. We show that eEF3 from Zygosaccharomyces rouxii and Candida glabrata (both belonging to phylum Ascomycota), Ustilago maydis (phylum Basidiomycota), and Gonapodya prolifera (phylum Monoblepharomycota), but not Aspergillus nidulans (phylum Ascomycota), support the growth of S. cerevisiae lacking the endogenous YEF3 gene. We also prove that eEF3 is an essential gene in the ascomycetes C. glabrata and A. nidulans, two species with huge medical value and relevant for genetic and metabolic studies, which opens the possibility of using eEF3 as a target to fight candidiasis.

    Keywords: Yef3, EEF3, Translation elongation, Translation evolution, fungal translation, RNA metabolism

    Received: 26 May 2024; Accepted: 30 Jul 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Maldonado, García, Herrero, Castano, Altmann, Fischer and Hernández. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Greco Hernández, National Institute of Cancerology (INCAN), Mexico City, Mexico

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