Rck1 up-regulates pseudohyphal growth by activating the Ras2 and MAP kinase pathways independently in Saccharomyces cerevisiae

Previously, we reported that Rck1 regulates Hog1 and Slt2 activities and affects MAP kinase activity in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Recently, we found that Rck1 up-regulates phospho-Kss1 and phospho-Fus3. Kss1 has been known as a component in the pseudohyphal growth pathway, and we attempted to identify the function of Rck1 in pseudohyphal growth. Rck1 up-regulated Ras2 at the protein level, not the transcriptional level. Additionally, FLO11 transcription was up-regulated by RCK1 over-expression. RCK1 expression was up-regulated during growth on SLAD + 1% butanol medium. On nitrogen starvation agar plates, RCK1 over-expression induced pseudohyphal growth of colonies, and cells over-expressing RCK1 showed a filamentous morphology when grown in SLAD medium. Furthermore, 1-butanol greatly induced filamentous growth when RCK1 was over-expressed. Moreover, invasive growth was activated in haploid cells when RCK1 was over-expressed. The growth defect of cells observed on 1-butanol medium was recovered when RCK1 was over-expressed. Interestingly, Ras2 and phospho-Kss1 were up-regulated by Rck1 independently. Together, these results suggest that Rck1 promotes pseudohyphal growth by activating Ras2 and Kss1 via independent pathways in S. cerevisiae.