A proteome-wide yeast degron collection for the dynamic study of protein function

Abstract

Genome-wide collections of yeast strains, known as libraries, revolutionized the way systematic studies are carried out. Specifically, libraries that involve a cellular perturbation, such as the deletion collection, have facilitated key biological discoveries. However, short-term rewiring and long-term accumulation of suppressor mutations often obscure the functional consequences of such perturbations. We present the AID library which supplies "on demand" protein depletion to overcome these limitations. Here, each protein is tagged with a Green Fluorescent Protein (GFP) and an Auxin inducible degron (AID), enabling rapid protein depletion that can be quantified systematically using the GFP element. We characterized the degradation response of all strains and demonstrated its utility by revisiting seminal yeast screens for genes involved in cell cycle progression as well as mitochondrial distribution and morphology. In addition to recapitulating known phenotypes, we also uncovered proteins with previously unrecognized roles in these central processes. Hence, our tool expands our knowledge of cellular biology and physiology by enabling access to phenotypes that are central to cellular physiology and therefore rapidly equilibrated.