Mammalian RAFT1 kinase domain provides rapamycin-sensitive TOR function in yeast.

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Abstract
In complex with the prolyl isomerase FKBP12, the natural product rapamycin blocks signal transduction in organisms as diverse as yeast and man. The yeast targets of FKBP12-rapamycin, TOR1 and TOR2, are large proteins with homology to lipid and protein kinases. A mammalian FKBP12-rapamycin binding protein, RAFT1, shares 39% and 43% identity with TOR1 and TOR2 proteins, respectively but has not been linked to rapamycin action in vivo. We find that when expressed in yeast, neither wild-type nor mutant RAFT1 complemented tor mutations or conferred rapamycin resistance. In contrast, TOR1-RAFT1 and TOR1-RAFT1 hybrid proteins containing the carboxy-terminal RAFT1 kinase domain complemented tor2 and tor1 mutant strains, respectively. Moreover, TOR2-RAFT1 and TOR1-RAFT1 hybrid proteins mutated at the position corresponding to rapamycin-resistant TOR mutants (S20351) conferred rapamycin resistance. Like the TOR2 protein, the TOR2-RAFT1 proteins were stably expressed, localized to the vacuolar surface, and associated with a phosphatidylinositol-4 kinase activity. These findings directly link the mammalian TOR homolog RAFT1 to rapamycin action in vivo and indicate that the TOR/RAFT1 kinase domain has been functionally conserved from yeast to man.