Summary
The proline utilisation gene cluster of Aspergillus nidulans can be repressed efficiently only when both repressing nitrogen and repressing carbon sources are present. We show that two cis-acting mutations in this cluster permit the efficient transcription of the prnB gene under repressing conditions, resulting in direct or indirect derepression of two other transcripts of the pathway. These mutations are transitions that define a 5′GAGACCCC3′ sequence. Similar sequences are found upstream of other genes subject to carbon catabolite repression. We propose that this sequence defines the binding site for the negatively-acting CreA protein, which mediates carbon catabolite repression in this fungus.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Arst HN Jr, Cove D (1973) Nitrogen metabolite repression in Aspergillus nidulans. Mol Gen Genet 126:111–141
Arst HN Jr, MacDonald DW (1975) A gene cluster of Aspergillus nidulans with an internally located cis-acting regulatory region. Nature 254:26–31
Arst HN Jr, MacDonald DW (1978) Reduced expression of a distal gene of the prn gene cluster in deletion mutants of Aspergillus nidulans: genetic evidence for a dicistronic messenger in a eukaryote. Mol Gen Genet 163:7–22
Arst HN Jr, MacDonald DW, Jones SA (1980) Regulation of proline transport in Aspergillus nidulans. J Gen Microbiol 116:285–294
Arst HN Jr, Jones SA, Bailey CR (1981) A method for selection of deletion mutations in the l-proline catabolism gene cluster of Aspergillus nidulans. Genet Res (Camb) 38:171–195
Bailey CR, Arst HN Jr (1975) Carbon catabolite repression in Aspergillus nidulans. Eur J Biochem 51:573–577
Brand AH, Micklem G, Nasmyth K (1987) A yeast silencer contains sequences that can promote autonomous plasmid replication and transcriptional activation. Cell 51:709–719
Christy B, Nathans D (1989) DNA binding site of the growth factor-inducible protein Zif268. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 86:8737–8741
Corrick CM, Twomey AP, Hynes MJ (1987) The nucleotide sequence of the amdS gene of Aspergillus nidulans and the molecular characterization of 5′ mutations. Gene 53:63–71
Diallinas G, Scazzocchio C (1989) A gene coding for the uric acid-xanthine permease of Aspergillus nidulans: inactivational cloning, characterization, and sequence of a cis-acting mutation. Genetics 122:341–350
Dowzer CEA, Kelly J (1991) Analysis of the creA gene, a regulator of carbon catabolite repression in Aspergillus nidulans. Mol Cell Biol 11:5701–5709
Felenbok B, Sophianopoulou V, Mathieu M, Sequeval D, Kulmburg P, Diallinas G, Scazzocchio C (1989) Regulation of genes involved in the utilization of carbon sources in Aspergillus nidulans. In: Nevalein H (ed) The molecular genetics of filamentous fungi, vol 6. Foundations for biotechnical and industrial fermentation research, Helsinki, pp 73–83
Fidel S, Doonan JH, Morris NR (1988) Aspergillus nidulans contains a single actin gene which has unique intron locations and encodes a γ-actin. Gene 70:283–293
Fu Y-H, Marzluf GA (1990) nit-2, the major positive-acting nitrogen regulatory gene of Neurospora crassa, encodes a sequencespecific DNA-binding protein. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 87:5331–5335
Goyon C, Faugeron G (1989) Targeted transformation of Ascobolus immersus and de novo methylation of the resulting duplicated DNA sequences. Mol Cell Biol 9:2818–2827
Griggs DW, Johnston M (1991) Regulated expression of the GAL4 activator in yeast provides a sensitive genetic switch for glucose repression. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 88:8597–8601
Gwyne DI, Buxton FP, Sibley S, Davies RW, Lockington RA, Scazzocchio C, Sealy-Lewis HM (1987) Comparison of the cis-acting control regions of two coordinately controlled genes involved in ethanol utilization in Aspergillus nidulans. Gene 51:205–216
Hawkins AR, Lamb HK, Smith M, Keyte JW, Roberts CF (1988) Molecular organization of the quinic acid utilization (QUT) gene cluster in Aspergillus nidulans Mol Gen Genet 214:224–231
Hull EP, Green PM, Arst HN Jr, Scazzocchio C (1989) Cloning and physical characterization of the L-proline catabolism gene cluster of Aspergillus nidulans. Mol Microbiol 3:553–559
Kudla B, Caddick MX, Langdon T, Martinez-Rossi NC, Bennet CF, Sibley S, Davies RW, Arst HN Jr (1990) The regulatory gene areA mediating nitrogen metabolite repression in Aspergillus nidulans. Mutations affecting specifity of gene activation alter a loop residue of a putative zinc finger. EMBO J 9:1355–1364
Lockington RA, Scazzocchio C, Sequeval D, Mathieu M, Felenbok B (1987) Regulation of alcR, the positive regulatory gene of the ethanol utilization regulon of Aspergillus nidulans. Mol Microbiol 1:275–281
Nehlin JO, Ronne H (1990) Yeast MIG1 repressor is related to the mammalian early growth response and Wilms' tumour finger proteins. EMBO J 9:2891–2898
Nehlin JO, Carlberg M, Ronne H (1991) Control of yeast GAL genes by MIG1 repressor: a transcriptional cascade in the glucose response. EMBO J 10:3373–3377
Sharma KK, Arst HN Jr (1985) The product of the regulatory gene of the proline catabolism gene cluster in Aspergillus nidulans is a positive acting protein. Curr Genet 9:299–304
Sophianopoulou V, Scazzocchio C (1989) The proline transport protein of Aspergillus nidulans is very similar to amino acid transporters of Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Mol Microbiol 3:705–714
Suárez T, Oestreicher N, Peñalva MA, Scazzocchio C (1991) Molecular cloning of the uaY regulatory gene of Aspergillus nidulans reveals a favoured region for DNA insertions. Mol Gen Genet 230:369–375
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Additional information
Communicated by C.A.M.J.J. van den Hondel
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Sophianopoulou, V., Suárez, T., Diallinas, G. et al. Operator derepressed mutations in the proline utilisation gene cluster of Aspergillus nidulans . Molec. Gen. Genet. 236, 209–213 (1993). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00277114
Received:
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00277114