This Article Full Text (PDF) Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Reprints and Permissions Copyright Information Books from ASM Press MicrobeWorld Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Miyajima, A Articles by Arai, N Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Miyajima, A Articles by Arai, N

 Previous Article  |  Next Article 

Mol Cell Biol. 1984 March; 4(3): 407-414

Expression of plasmid R388-encoded type II dihydrofolate reductase as a dominant selective marker in Saccharomyces cerevisiae.

ABSTRACT

The R388 plasmid-encoded drug-resistant type II dihydrofolate reductase gene (R . dhfr) was expressed in Saccharomyces cerevisiae by fusing the R . dhfr coding sequence to the yeast TRP5 promoter. Yeast cells harboring these recombinant plasmids grew in media with 10 micrograms of methotrexate per ml and 5 mg of sulfanilamide per ml, a condition which inhibits the growth of wild-type cells. Addition of a 390-base-pair fragment from the 3'-noncoding region of TRP5 downstream from R . dhfr increased expression. Presumably, the added segment promoted termination or polyadenylation or both of the R . dhfr transcript. The activity of the plasmid-encoded dihydrofolate reductase and the copy number of the R . dhfr plasmid in cells grown in drug-selective media were higher by one order of magnitude than those grown in nutrition-selective media. Plasmid copy number, as well as the plasmid-encoded enzyme level, decreased when cells were selected for prototrophy. In drug-selective media, the plasmid-encoded enzyme level and the content of R . dhfr transcripts were nearly constant in cells harboring R . dhfr plasmids containing different yeast promoters. In contrast, the plasmid copy number and beta-lactamase activity encoded in cis by plasmids were much higher when R . dhfr was associated with the weak TRP5 promoter than when it was fused to the strong ADC1 promoter. These results indicate that plasmid copy number, i.e., gene dosage of R . dhfr, correlates inversely with the strength of the promoter associated with R . dhfr, and cells with a higher plasmid copy number were enriched in drug-selective media. The transformation efficiency of R . dhfr fused to the ADC1 promoter was almost the same on drug-selective plates as on nutrition-selective plates, indicating that R . dhfr is suitable as a dominant selective transformation marker in S. cerevisiae.

This article has been cited by other articles:

• Brophy, V. H., Vasquez, J., Nelson, R. G., Forney, J. R., Rosowsky, A., Sibley, C. H. (2000). Identification of Cryptosporidium parvum Dihydrofolate Reductase Inhibitors by Complementation in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Antimicrob. Agents Chemother. 44: 1019-1028 [Abstract] [Full Text]