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Mol Cell Biol, February 1998, p. 887-895, Vol. 18, No. 2
0270-7306/98/$04.00+0
Copyright © 1998, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.

Novel Factor Highly Conserved among Eukaryotes Controls Sexual Development in Fission Yeast

Noriko Okazaki,1 Koei Okazaki,1 Yoshinori Watanabe,2 Mariko Kato-Hayashi,2 Masayuki Yamamoto,2 and Hiroto Okayama1,3,*

Okayama Cell Switching Project, ERATO, JRDC, Sakyo-ku, Kyoto 606,1 and Department of Biochemistry, Graduate School for Science,2 and Department of Biochemistry, Faculty of Medicine,3 University of Tokyo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113, Japan

Received 25 July 1997/Returned for modification 22 September 1997/Accepted 28 October 1997

In the fission yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe, the onset of sexual development is controlled mainly by two external signals, nutrient starvation and mating pheromone availability. We have isolated a novel gene named rcd1+ as a key factor required for nitrogen starvation-induced sexual development. rcd1+ encodes a 283-amino-acid protein with no particular motifs. However, genes highly homologous to rcd1+ (encoding amino acids with >70% identity) are present at least in budding yeasts, plants, nematodes, and humans. Cells with rcd1+ deleted are sterile if sexual development is induced by nitrogen starvation but fertile if it is induced by glucose starvation. This results largely from a defect in nitrogen starvation-invoked induction of ste11+, a key transcriptional factor gene required for the onset of sexual development. The striking conservation of the gene throughout eukaryotes may suggest the presence of an evolutionarily conserved differentiation controlling system.

* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Department of Biochemistry, Faculty of Medicine, University of Tokyo, 7-3-1 Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113, Japan. Phone: 03-5689-0876. Fax: 03-3815-1490. E-mail: okayama{at}m.u-tokyo.ac.jp.




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