Analysis of the Arabidopsis thaliana cell growth defect factor 2 (Cdf2) suppressing yeast cell proliferation

The Cdf2 gene, which is a gene reported to suppress the cell death induced by Bax gene expression in yeast, was screened from an Arabidopsis cDNA library using the yeast screening system harboring GAL1 fused to AtBI-1. Cdf2 encodes a protein consisting of 118 amino acid residues with a molecular weight of 28.8 kDa. The protein has one transmembrane domain in the middle of the amino acid sequence (29-106). Cdf2 induces a growth defect in yeast. The Cdf2-GFP fusion protein was localized in the vacuole of yeast. Cdf2 expression attenuated the morphological abnormality of the intracellular network, which is a hallmark of AtBI-1.