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Mol Cell Biol, July 1998, p. 3983-3990, Vol. 18, No. 7
0270-7306/98/$04.00+0
Copyright © 1998, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.

Interaction between Major Nitrogen Regulatory Protein NIT2 and Pathway-Specific Regulatory Factor NIT4 Is Required for Their Synergistic Activation of Gene Expression in Neurospora crassa

Bo Feng and George A. Marzluf*

Department of Biochemistry and Program in Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio 43210

Received 22 January 1998/Returned for modification 17 March 1998/Accepted 24 April 1998

In Neurospora crassa, the major nitrogen regulatory protein, NIT2, a member of the GATA family of transcription factors, controls positively the expression of numerous genes which specify nitrogen catabolic enzymes. Expression of the highly regulated structural gene nit-3, which encodes nitrate reductase, is dependent upon a synergistic interaction of NIT2 with a pathway-specific control protein, NIT4, a member of the GAL4 family of fungal regulatory factors. The NIT2 and NIT4 proteins both bind at specific recognition elements in the nit-3 promoter, but, in addition, we show that a direct protein-protein interaction between NIT2 and NIT4 is essential for optimal expression of the nit-3 structural gene. Neurospora possesses at least five different GATA factors which control different areas of cellular function, but which have a similar DNA binding specificity. Significantly, only NIT2, of the several Neurospora GATA factors examined, interacts with NIT4. We propose that protein-protein interactions of the individual GATA factors with additional pathway-specific regulatory factors determine each of their specific regulatory functions.

* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Department of Biochemistry, Ohio State University, 484 West 12th Ave., Columbus, OH 43210. Phone: (614) 292-9471. Fax: (614) 292-6773. E-mail: marzluf.1{at}osu.edu.

Mol Cell Biol, July 1998, p. 3983-3990, Vol. 18, No. 7
0270-7306/98/$04.00+0
Copyright © 1998, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.


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