Figure 2.

Sulfate assimilation leading to glutathione and phytochelatin synthesis is critical for cadmium and arsenite resistance in S. pombe. The diagram illustrates the biochemical pathway starting with sulfate and leading to cysteine biosynthesis, formation of glutathione and phytochelatin, and chelation of arsenic and cadmium by these cysteine-rich peptides. All genes of this pathway were identified in the arsenic and cadmium functional profiling screens, with the exception of three genes indicated by an asterisk (sir1, met10, and gcs1) that were absent from the deletome library used in these studies. These three genes were previously shown to be critical for cadmium resistance (Kennedy et al. 2008).