Isolation, sequencing, and disruption of the yeast CKA2 gene: casein kinase II is essential for viability in Saccharomyces cerevisiae.

Casein kinase II of Saccharomyces cerevisiae contains two distinct catalytic subunits, alpha and alpha', which are encoded by the CKA1 and CKA2 genes, respectively. Null mutations in the CKA1 gene do not confer a detectable phenotype (J. L.-P. Chen-Wu, R. Padmanabha, and C. V. C. Glover, Mol. Cell. Biol. 8:4981-4990, 1988), presumably because of the presence of the CKA2 gene. We report here the cloning, sequencing, and disruption of the CKA2 gene. The alpha' subunit encoded by the CKA2 gene is 60% identical to the CKA1-encoded alpha subunit and 55% identical to the Drosophila alpha subunit (A. Saxena, R. Padmanabha, and C. V. C. Glover, Mol. Cell. Biol. 7:3409-3417, 1987). Deletions of the CKA2 gene were constructed by gene replacement techniques. Haploid cells in which the CKA2 gene alone is disrupted show no detectable phenotype, but haploid cells carrying disruptions in both the CKA1 and CKA2 genes are inviable. Cells in which casein kinase II activity is depleted increase substantially in size prior to growth arrest, and a significant fraction of the arrested cells exhibit a pseudomycelial morphology. Disruption of the activity also results in flocculation. Yeast strains lacking both endogenous catalytic subunit genes can be rescued by expression of the alpha and beta subunits of Drosophila casein kinase II or by expression of the Drosophila alpha subunit alone, suggesting that casein kinase II function has been conserved through evolution.