Selective control of metabolism by the GCN2 eIF2 kinase pathway in Saccharomyces cerevisiae

When eukaryotic cells are deprived of amino acids, uncharged tRNAs accumulate and activate the conserved GCN2 protein kinase. We examine how yeast growth and tRNA charging or aminoacylation is affected during amino acid depletion in the presence and absence of GCN2. tRNA charging is measured using a microarray technique which allows for simultaneous measurement of all cytosolic tRNAs. A fully prototrophic and its isogenic GCN2 deletion strain were used. We measured relative tRNA charging levels in yeast strains with an intact and deleted GCN2.