Multiple mechanisms activate GCN2 eIF2 kinase in response to diverse stress conditions

Diverse environmental insults induce the integrated stress response (ISR), which features eIF2 phosphorylation and translational control that serves to restore protein homeostasis. The eIF2 kinase GCN2 is a first responder in the ISR that is activated by amino acid depletion and other unrelated stresses. Two processes are suggested to trigger an ordered process of GCN2 activation during stress: GCN2 monitoring stress via accumulating uncharged tRNAs or by stalled and colliding ribosomes. Our results suggest that while ribosomal collisions are indeed essential for GCN2 activation in response to translational elongation inhibitors, conditions that trigger deacylation of tRNAs activate GCN2 via its direct association with affected tRNAs. Both process require the GCN2 regulatory domain related to histidyl tRNA synthetases. GCN2 activation by UV irradiation features lowered amino acids and increased uncharged tRNAs and ribosome collisions are dispensable. We conclude that there are multiple mechanisms that activate GCN2 during diverse stresses. Overall design: tRNA Charge-Seq was applied to MEF cells treated with Halofuginone (HF) and human NTERT cells treated with UV irradiation to study the mechanisms by which uncharged tRNA accumulation and ribosome stalling active Gcn2 and trigger the Integrated Stress Response (ISR)