Analysis of constitutive and noninducible mutations of the PUT3 transcriptional activator.

The Saccharomyces cerevisiae PUT3 gene encodes a transcriptional activator that binds to DNA sequences in the promoters of the proline utilization genes and is required for the basal and induced expression of the enzymes of this pathway. The sequence of the wild-type PUT3 gene revealed the presence of one large open reading frame capable of encoding a 979-amino-acid protein. The protein contains amino-terminal basic and cysteine-rich domains homologous to the DNA-binding motifs of other yeast transcriptional activators. Adjacent to these domains is an acidic domain with a net charge of -17. A second acidic domain with a net charge of -29 is located at the carboxy terminus. The midsection of the PUT3 protein has homology to other activators including GAL4, LAC9, PPR1, and PDR1. Mutations in PUT3 causing aberrant (either constitutive or noninducible) expression of target genes in this system have been analyzed. One activator-defective and seven activator-constitutive PUT3 alleles have been retrieved from the genome and sequenced to determine the nucleotide changes responsible for the altered function of the protein. The activator-defective mutation is a single nucleotide change within codon 409, replacing glycine with aspartic acid. One activator-constitutive mutation is a nucleotide change at codon 683, substituting phenylalanine for serine. The remaining constitutive mutations resulted in amino acid substitutions or truncations of the protein within the carboxy-terminal 76 codons. Mechanisms for regulating the activation function of the PUT3 protein are discussed.

Isolation of constitutive mutations affecting the proline utilization pathway in Saccharomyces cerevisiae and molecular analysis of the PUT3 transcriptional activator.

The enzymes of the proline utilization pathway (the products of the PUT1 and PUT2 genes) in Saccharomyces cerevisiae are coordinately regulated by proline and the PUT3 transcriptional activator. To learn more about the control of this pathway, constitutive mutations in PUT3 as well as in other regulators were sought. A scheme using a gene fusion between PUT1 (S. cerevisiae proline oxidase) and galK (Escherichia coli galactokinase) was developed to select directly for constitutive mutations affecting the PUT1 promoter. These mutations were secondarily screened for their effects in trans on the promoter of the PUT2 (delta 1-pyrroline-5-carboxylate dehydrogenase) gene by using a PUT2-lacZ (E. coli beta-galactosidase) gene fusion. Three different classes of mutations were isolated. The major class consisted of semidominant constitutive PUT3 mutations that caused PUT2-lacZ expression to vary from 2 to 22 times the uninduced level. A single dominant mutation in a new locus called PUT5 resulted in low-level constitutive expression of PUT2-lacZ; this mutation was epistatic to the recessive, noninducible put3-75 allele. Recessive constitutive mutations were isolated that had pleiotropic growth defects; it is possible that these mutations are not specific to the proline utilization pathway but may be in genes that control several pathways. Since the PUT3 gene appears to have a major role in the regulation of this pathway, a molecular analysis was undertaken. This gene was cloned by functional complementation of the put3-75 mutation. Strains carrying a complete deletion of this gene are viable, proline nonutilizing, and indistinguishable in phenotype from the original put3-75 allele. The PUT3 gene encodes a 2.8-kilobase-pair transcript that is not regulated by proline at the level of RNA accumulation. The presence of the gene on a high-copy-number plasmid did not alter the regulation of one of its target genes, PUT2-lacZ, suggesting that the PUT3 gene product is not limiting and that a titratable repressor is not involved in the regulation of this pathway.