Ssd1p of Saccharomyces cerevisiae associates with RNA

Abstract

The SSD1 gene has been isolated as a single copy suppressor of many mutants, such as sit4, slk1/bck1, pde2, and rpc31, in the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Ssd1p has domains showing weak but significant homology with RNase II-related proteins, Cyt4p, Dss1p, VacB, and RNase II, which are involved in the modification of RNA. We found that Ssd1p had the ability to bind RNA, preferably poly(rA), as well as single-stranded DNA. Interestingly, the most conserved domain among the RNase II-related proteins was not necessary for interaction with RNA. Indirect immunofluorescence staining with anti-Ssd1p antibody revealed that Ssd1p was detected mainly in the cytoplasm. Furthermore, sucrose gradient sedimentation analysis demonstrated that Ssd1p was not cofractionated with polyribosomes, suggesting that Ssd1p is not particularly bound to a translationally active subpopulation of mRNA in the cytoplasm.