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A zinc-finger protein, Rst2p, regulates transcription of the fission yeast ste11(+) gene, which encodes a pivotal transcription factor for sexual development.

ABSTRACT: Schizosaccharomyces pombe ste11 encodes a high-mobility group family transcriptional activator that is pivotal in sexual development. Transcription of ste11 is induced by starvation of nutrients via a decrease of the cAMP-dependent protein kinase (PKA) activity. Here we report the identification of a novel transcription factor, Rst2p, that directly regulates ste11 expression. Cells in which the rst2 gene was disrupted expressed ste11 poorly and were sterile, and this sterility could be suppressed by artificial expression of ste11. Disruption of rst2 suppressed hypermating and hypersporulation in the PKA-null mutant, whereas overexpression of rst2 induced sexual development in the PKA-activated mutant. Cloning analysis indicated that Rst2p was a Cys(2)His(2) zinc-finger protein carrying 567 amino acid residues. Rst2p could bind specifically to a stress response element-like cis element located in the ste11 promoter region, which was important for ste11 expression. Meanwhile, transcription of ste11 was reduced significantly by a defective mutation in itself. An artificial supply of functional Ste11p circumvented this reduction. A complete Ste11p-binding motif (TR box) found in the promoter region was necessary for the full expression of ste11, suggesting that Ste11p is involved in the activation of ste11. We conclude that transcription of ste11 is under autoregulation in addition to control through the PKA-Rst2p pathway.

SUBMITTER: Kunitomo H

PROVIDER: S-EPMC14986 | biostudies-literature | 2000 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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A zinc-finger protein, Rst2p, regulates transcription of the fission yeast ste11(+) gene, which encodes a pivotal transcription factor for sexual development.

Kunitomo H H Higuchi T T Iino Y Y Yamamoto M M

Molecular biology of the cell 20000901 9

Schizosaccharomyces pombe ste11 encodes a high-mobility group family transcriptional activator that is pivotal in sexual development. Transcription of ste11 is induced by starvation of nutrients via a decrease of the cAMP-dependent protein kinase (PKA) activity. Here we report the identification of a novel transcription factor, Rst2p, that directly regulates ste11 expression. Cells in which the rst2 gene was disrupted expressed ste11 poorly and were sterile, and this sterility could be suppresse ...[more]

PMID: 10982411

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Project description:The yeast-to-filament transition is an important cellular response to environmental stimulations in dimorphic fungi. In addition to activators, there are repressors in the cells to prevent filament formation, which is important to keep the cells in the yeast form when filamentation is not necessary. However, very few repressors of filamentation are known so far. Here, we identify a novel repressor of filamentation in the dimorphic yeast Yarrowia lipolytica, Fts2, which is a C2H2-type zinc finger transcription factor. We show that fts2Δ cells exhibited increased filamentation under mild filament-inducing conditions and formed filaments under non-filament-inducing conditions. We also show that Fts2 interacts with YlSsn6, component of the Tup1-Ssn6 transcriptional corepressor, and Fts2-LexA represses a lexAop-PYlACT1-lacZ reporter in a Tup1-Ssn6-dependent manner, suggesting that Fts2 has transcriptional repressor activity and represses gene expression via Tup1-Ssn6. In addition, we show that Fts2 represses a large number of cell wall protein genes and transcription factor genes, some of which are implicated in the filamentation response. Interestingly, about two-thirds of Fts2-repressed genes are also repressed by Tup1-Ssn6, suggesting that Fts2 may repress the bulk of its target genes via Tup1-Ssn6. Lastly, we show that Fts2 expression is downregulated in response to alkaline pH and the relief of negative control by Fts2 facilitates the induction of filamentation by alkaline pH. IMPORTANCE The repressors of filamentation are important negative regulators of the yeast-to-filament transition. However, except in Candida albicans, very few repressors of filamentation are known in dimorphic fungi. More importantly, how they repress filamentation is often not clear. In this paper, we report a novel repressor of filamentation in Y. lipolytica. Fts2 is not closely related in amino acid sequence to CaNrg1 and Rfg1, two major repressors of filamentation in C. albicans, yet it represses gene expression via the transcriptional corepressor Tup1-Ssn6, similar to CaNrg1 and Rfg1. Using transcriptome sequencing, we determined the whole set of genes regulated by Fts2 and identified the major targets of Fts2 repression, which provide clues to the mechanism by which Fts2 represses filamentation. Our results have important implications for understanding the negative control of the yeast-to-filament transition in dimorphic fungi.

Dataset Information

A zinc-finger protein, Rst2p, regulates transcription of the fission yeast ste11(+) gene, which encodes a pivotal transcription factor for sexual development.

Publications

A zinc-finger protein, Rst2p, regulates transcription of the fission yeast ste11(+) gene, which encodes a pivotal transcription factor for sexual development.

Similar Datasets

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