Transcriptional Rewiring of Fungal Galactose-Metabolism Circuitry

The Leloir-pathway genes encode the enzymatic machinery involved in the metabolism of galactose. In the distantly related fungi Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Candida albicans, the genes encoding these enzymes are syntenically arranged, but the upstream regulatory regions are highly divergent. In S. c...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Current biology 2007-06, Vol.17 (12), p.1007-1013
Main Authors: Martchenko, Mikhail, Levitin, Anastasia, Hogues, Herve, Nantel, Andre, Whiteway, Malcolm
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Amino Acid Sequence
Base Sequence
Candida albicans
Candida albicans - genetics
Candida albicans - growth & development
Candida albicans - metabolism
EVO_ECOL
Fungal Proteins - chemistry
Fungal Proteins - genetics
Fungal Proteins - metabolism
Galactose - metabolism
Gene Expression Profiling
Gene Expression Regulation, Fungal
Molecular Sequence Data
Oligonucleotide Array Sequence Analysis
Promoter Regions, Genetic
Saccharomyces cerevisiae
Saccharomyces cerevisiae - genetics
Saccharomyces cerevisiae - growth & development
Saccharomyces cerevisiae - metabolism
Saccharomyces cerevisiae Proteins - genetics
Saccharomyces cerevisiae Proteins - metabolism
Trans-Activators - genetics
Trans-Activators - metabolism
Transcription Factors - genetics
Transcription Factors - metabolism
Transcription, Genetic
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:The Leloir-pathway genes encode the enzymatic machinery involved in the metabolism of galactose. In the distantly related fungi Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Candida albicans, the genes encoding these enzymes are syntenically arranged, but the upstream regulatory regions are highly divergent. In S. cerevisiae, the Leloir-pathway genes are positively regulated by Gal4p acting through the UASG sequence CGG(N11)CCG. However, in C. albicans, the Gal4p and UASG combination is found to regulate genes unrelated to galactose metabolism. We identified a palindromic sequence that acts to control GAL10 expression in C. albicans in the presence of galactose. This palindrome is found upstream of other Leloir-pathway genes in C. albicans, and in the absence of other regulatory sequences, activation of expression through this sequence in the presence of galactose requires Cph1p, the homolog of the Ste12p transcription factor of S. cerevisiae. Although the cellular process of galactose induction of the Leloir pathway is conserved between the two organisms, the regulatory circuits achieving the cellular process are completely distinct.
ISSN:0960-9822
1879-0445
DOI:10.1016/j.cub.2007.05.017