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Transcriptional regulation of meiosis in budding yeast

Transcriptional regulation of meiosis in budding yeast

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1.2. IME4. IME4 encodes a positive regulator absolutely required for the transcription <strong>of</strong><br />

IME1 (Shah and Clancy, 1992). The transcription <strong>of</strong> IME4 is regulated by the meiotic signals; it<br />

requires the presence <strong>of</strong> the MATa1 and MATα2 gene products and nitrogen depletion. Rme1<br />

does not transmit the MAT signal to IME4 (Shah and Clancy, 1992), suggest<strong>in</strong>g that Rme1 and<br />

Ime4 function <strong>in</strong> two dist<strong>in</strong>ct signal pathways. The region with<strong>in</strong> IME1 respond<strong>in</strong>g to Ime4, and<br />

the mode by which Ime4 activates the transcription <strong>of</strong> IME1 is not known. Over expression <strong>of</strong><br />

Ime1 partially suppresses ime4∆, suggest<strong>in</strong>g that Ime4 have an additional role <strong>in</strong> <strong>meiosis</strong> (Shah<br />

and Clancy, 1992). Ime4 associates with Mum2/SpoT-8 (Uetz et al., 2000) that is required for<br />

premeiotic DNA replication (Engebrecht et al., 1998; Tsuboi, 1983). It is possible that the second<br />

meiotic function <strong>of</strong> Ime4 is to regulate the function <strong>of</strong> this prote<strong>in</strong>.<br />

1.3. RES1. The dom<strong>in</strong>ant mutation Res1-1 bypasses the requirement for the presence <strong>of</strong><br />

both Mata1 and Matα2 for the expression <strong>of</strong> IME1 and <strong>meiosis</strong> (Kao et al., 1990). Res1-1 is not<br />

allelic to RME1, IME1 or IME4 (Kao et al., 1990; Shah and Clancy, 1992), neither is Res1 <strong>in</strong> the<br />

Ime4 or Rme1 signal pathway (Kao et al., 1990; Shah and Clancy, 1992). This gene has not been<br />

cloned, and its normal function is not known.<br />

B. The nitrogen signal<br />

The nitrogen signal is transmitted to IME1 through the UCS1 element (Fig. 3). Nested deletion <strong>of</strong><br />

this region leads to a 5 and 15-fold <strong>in</strong>crease <strong>in</strong> the expression <strong>of</strong> ime1-lacZ <strong>in</strong> vegetative growth<br />

media with either glucose (SD) or acetate (SA) as the sole carbon source, respectively [Fig. 4,<br />

compare l<strong>in</strong>es D and E, (Sagee et al., 1998)]. These results suggest that UCS1 functions as a<br />

negative element <strong>in</strong> the presence <strong>of</strong> glucose and nitrogen. By itself UCS1 has no UAS activity, it<br />

cannot promote expression <strong>of</strong> a his4-lacZ reporter gene lack<strong>in</strong>g its own UAS (Nadjar-Boger,<br />

2000). Insertion <strong>of</strong> UCS1 between the HIS4 UAS and TATA box <strong>in</strong> the HIS4UAS-HIS4TATA-lacZ<br />

reporter gene leads to a substantial reduction <strong>of</strong> expression <strong>in</strong> SD and SA [Fig. 5, (Sagee et al.,<br />

1998)]. Level <strong>of</strong> repression is 2 to 3-fold higher <strong>in</strong> SD <strong>in</strong> comparison to SA, confirm<strong>in</strong>g that the<br />

activity <strong>of</strong> UCS1 is partially regulated by glucose. Upon nitrogen depletion (SPM) a substantial<br />

<strong>in</strong>crease <strong>in</strong> expression is observed [Fig. 5 and (Sagee et al., 1998)], suggest<strong>in</strong>g that nitrogen is the<br />

major signal regulat<strong>in</strong>g the function <strong>of</strong> UCS1.<br />

The cAMP/PKA pathway transmits a nitrogen signal to IME1 and <strong>meiosis</strong> (Matsumoto et al.,<br />

1983; Matsuura et al., 1990). Mutations that cause low or no activity <strong>of</strong> PKA, such as cyr1, ras2,<br />

and cdc25 lead to the expression <strong>of</strong> IME1 and spore formation <strong>in</strong> the presence <strong>of</strong> nitrogen<br />

(Matsumoto et al., 1983; Matsuura et al., 1990; Shilo et al., 1978; Smith and Mitchell, 1989)<br />

[CYR1 encodes adenylate cyclase, RAS2 encodes a small G prote<strong>in</strong> that functions as a positive<br />

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