Abstract Cdc24p is the guanine-nucleotide exchange factor for the Cdc42p GTPase, which controls cell polarity in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. To identify new genes that may affect cell polarity, we characterized six UV-induced csl (CDC24  synthetic-lethal) mutants that exhibited synthetic-lethality with cdc24-4ts at 23°. Five mutants were not complemented by plasmid-borne CDC42, RSRI, BUD5, BEM1, BEM2, BEM3 or CLA4 genes, which are known to play a role in cell polarity. The csl3 mutant displayed phenotypes similar to those observed with calcium-sensitive, Pet−  vma mutants defective in vacuole function. CSL5 was allelic to VMA5, the vacuolar H+-ATPase subunit C, and one third of cs15 cdc24-4ts cells were elongated or had misshapen buds. A cdc24-4ts Δvma5::LEU2 double mutant did not exhibit synthetic lethality, suggesting that the csl5/vma5 cdc24-4ts synthetic-lethality was not simply due to altered vacuole function. The cdc24-4ts mutant, like Δvma5::LEU2 and cs13 mutants, was sensitive to high levels of Ca2+ as well as Na+ in the growth media, which did not appear to be a result of a fragile cell wall because the phenotypes were not remedied by 1 m sorbitol. Our results indicated that Cdc24p was required in one V-ATPase mutant and another mutant affecting vacuole morphology, and also implicated Cdc24p in Na+ tolerance.

White, W. H., & Johnson, D. I. (1997). Characterization of Synthetic-Lethal Mutants Reveals a Role for the Saccharomyces cerevisiae Guanine-Nucleotide Exchange Factor Cdc24p in Vacuole Function and Na+ Tolerance. Genetics, 147(1), 43–55.