Spermidine biosynthesis in Saccharomyces cerevisiae: Polyamine requirement of a null mutant of the SPE3 gene (spermidine synthase)

The Saccharomyces cerevisiae SPE3 gene, coding for spermidine synthase, was cloned, sequenced, and localized on the right arm of chromosome XVI. The deduced amino acid sequence has a high similarity to mammalian spermidine synthases, and has putative S-adenosylmethionine binding motifs. To investigate the effect of total loss of the SPE3 gene, we constructed a null mutant of this gene, spe3Δ, which has no spermidine synthase activity and has an absolute requirement for spermidine or spermine for the growth. This requirement is satisfied by a very low concentration of spermidine (10 −8 M) or a higher concentration of spermine (10 −6 M).