AUTHOR=Maldonado Giovanna , García Alejandra , Herrero Saturnino , Castaño Irene , Altmann Michael , Fischer Reinhard , Hernández Greco 

TITLE=The gene YEF3 function encoding translation elongation factor eEF3 is partially conserved across fungi

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Microbiology

VOLUME=15

YEAR=2024

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/microbiology/articles/10.3389/fmicb.2024.1438900

DOI=10.3389/fmicb.2024.1438900

ISSN=1664-302X

ABSTRACT=<sec><title>Introduction</title><p>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 eukaryotic elongation factor (eEF) 3 in <italic>Saccharomyces cerevisiae</italic> encoded by the gene yeast elongation factor (<italic>YEF3</italic>) with orthologs in all fungal species, a few algae, and some protists. In <italic>S. cerevisiae, YEF3</italic> is an essential gene and eEF3 plays a critical role in translation elongation, as it promotes binding of the ternary complex acylated-Transfer RNA (tRNA)—eEF1A—Guanosine-5'-triphosphate (GTP) to the aminoacyl (A) site of the ribosome, the release of uncharged tRNAs after peptide translocation, and ribosome recycling. Even though <italic>YEF3</italic> was discovered more than 40 years ago, eEF3 has been characterized almost exclusively in <italic>S. cerevisiae</italic>.</p></sec><sec><title>Methods</title><p>We undertook an <italic>in vivo</italic> genetic approach to assess the functional conservation of <italic>eEF3</italic> across phylogenetically distant fungal species.</p></sec><sec><title>Results</title><p>We found that <italic>eEF3</italic> from <italic>Zygosaccharomyces rouxii</italic> and <italic>Candida glabrata</italic> (both belonging to <italic>phylum</italic> Ascomycota), <italic>Ustilago maydis</italic> (<italic>phylum</italic> Basidiomycota), and <italic>Gonapodya prolifera</italic> (<italic>phylum</italic> Monoblepharomycota), but not <italic>Aspergillus nidulans</italic> (<italic>phylum</italic> Ascomycota), supported the growth of <italic>S. cerevisiae</italic> lacking the endogenous <italic>YEF3</italic> gene. We also proved that <italic>eEF3</italic> is an essential gene in the ascomycetes <italic>C. glabrata</italic> and <italic>A. nidulans</italic>.</p></sec><sec><title>Discussion</title><p>Given that most existing knowledge on fungal translation has only been obtained from <italic>S. cerevisiae</italic>, our findings beyond this organism showed variability in the elongation process in Fungi. We also proved that <italic>eEF3</italic> is essential in pathogenic fungi, opening the possibility of using eEF3 as a target to fight candidiasis.</p></sec>