Extraction and Quantification of Polyphosphate in the Budding Yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae

Abstract

Inorganic polyphosphate (polyP) is a linear polymer present in both prokaryotic and eukaryotic organisms and made from three to hundreds of orthophosphate residues linked by phosphoanhydride bonds. The biological role of this molecule goes beyond serving as Pi store or energy source to replace ATP. For instance, in yeast polyP levels have been related to stress adaptation and this molecule has been shown to be the substrate for polyphosphorylation of proteins. Here we describe two different methods to purify polyP from the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae and the subsequent protocol to quantify polyP levels by spectrophotometrically measuring the Pi generated upon enzymatic hydrolysis of purified polyP. It must be noted that the purification protocol used greatly influences the polyP values obtained. Figure 1. Enzymatic hydrolysis of polyP