Fig. 1: ATP prevents protein aggregate accumulation during glucose starvation.

a The percentage of cells bearing 1 (light blue) and 2 or more (dark blue) aggregates strongly increases during a 90-min starvation in 0.2% glucose. Treatment with ATP, but not GTP or ADP (all in the presence of DMSO), causes the fraction of cells bearing aggregates to return to levels comparable to control. b Mean aggregate diameter shifts to larger sizes during starvation in 0.2% glucose. The addition of ATP, but not GTP or ADP (all in the presence of DMSO), results in aggregates reverting to the sizes observed in control conditions. c The percentage of cells bearing 1 (light red) and 2 or more (dark red) aggregates strongly increases during a 90-min starvation in 0.02% glucose. Treatment with ATP, but not GTP or ADP (all in the presence of DMSO), causes the fraction of cells bearing aggregates to return to levels comparable to control. d Mean aggregate diameter shifts to larger sizes during starvation in 0.02% glucose. The addition of ATP, but not GTP or ADP, results in aggregates reverting to the sizes observed in control conditions. In panels a and c, n = 1200 cells were screened for aggregates starting from three independent exponential yeast cultures for each condition. Black arrows are pointing towards the starvation condition supplemented with ATP. Data are mean ± SD from at least three independent cultures, each performed in triplicate, and the means of technical replicates are represented as individual data points. ***p < 0.001; **p < 0.01; *p < 0.05 (one-way ANOVA plus Tukey post hoc). In panels b and d the data represent binned values of individual aggregate diameters for N = 127, 297, 224, 330, and 320 aggregates from three independent exponential yeast cultures for each condition: 2% glucose, starvation, starvation + ATP, starvation + GTP, and starvation + ADP, respectively. The images are representative of three biological replicates, each in three technical replicates. Kolmogorov–Smirnov test was used to compare the statistical significance of the observed differences between each studied condition with the control (2% glucose) ***p < 0.001; **p < 0.01; *p < 0.05. The black bar represents 8 µm.