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 Brake, A J Articles by Thorner, J Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Brake, A J Articles by Thorner, J

 Previous Article  |  Next Article 

Mol Cell Biol. 1983 August; 3(8): 1440-1450

A functional prepro-alpha-factor gene in Saccharomyces yeasts can contain three, four, or five repeats of the mature pheromone sequence.

ABSTRACT

The chromosomal region containing a structural gene for the mating pheromone precursor prepro-alpha-factor was examined in a variety of Saccharomyces yeasts by using a cloned putative prepro-alpha-factor gene of Saccharomyces cerevisiae as the probe. Analysis by restriction endonuclease digestion and Southern blot hybridization indicated that the physical arrangement of this region is highly conserved in all the Saccharomyces species analyzed, but displays length polymorphisms of limited size (50 to 60 base pairs). The observed polymorphisms were shown to be due solely to differences in the number of tandemly arranged spacer peptide/pheromone units within the coding sequence of these genes. Analysis of polyadenylated RNA indicated that these genes specified RNA transcripts and that these RNA molecules could be translated in vitro into prepro-alpha-factor polypeptides immunoprecipitable with anti-alpha-factor antibodies. The sizes of both the mRNAs and the proteins synthesized from them reflected exactly the differences observed in the lengths of the genes. These findings demonstrate conclusively that the putative prepro-alpha-factor DNA cloned from S. cerevisiae, as well as the sequences detected in the other Saccharomyces species, are indeed expressed and functional genes, and suggest that proper proteolytic processing of prepro-alpha-factor is unaffected by the number of pheromone repeats encoded within this precursor protein.

This article has been cited by other articles:

• Koganesawa, N., Aizawa, T., Masaki, K., Matsuura, A., Nimori, T., Bando, H., Kawano, K., Nitta, K. (2001). Construction of an expression system of insect lysozyme lacking thermal stability: the effect of selection of signal sequence on level of expression in the Pichia pastoris expression system. Protein Eng Des Sel 14: 705-710 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
• Mamoun, C. B., Beckerich, J.-M., Gaillardin, C., Kepes, F. (1999). Disruption of YHC8, a Member of the TSR1 Gene Family, Reveals Its Direct Involvement in Yeast Protein Translocation. J. Biol. Chem. 274: 11296-11302 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
• Blumer, K.J., Reneke, J.E., Courchesne, W.E., Thorner, J. (1988). Functional Domains of a Peptide Hormone Receptor: The {alpha}-Factor Receptor (STE2 Gene Product) of the Yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Cold Spring Harb Symp Quant Biol 53: 591-603 [Abstract]