Skip to main content
PMC home page
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America logoLink to Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
. 1987 Dec;84(23):8520–8524. doi: 10.1073/pnas.84.23.8520

The upstream activation site of a Ty2 element of yeast is necessary but not sufficient to promote maximal transcription of the element.

X B Liao 1, J J Clare 1, P J Farabaugh 1
PMCID: PMC299576  PMID: 2825192

Abstract

The Ty elements of yeast are a family of retrovirus-like transposons that are highly transcribed, accounting for about 10% of total mRNA. We have mapped two sites to the nontranscribed region of the element upstream of the transcription start site that are required for maximal gene expression and are similar to sites previously defined in other genes. One, the TATA site, is located 74 base pairs upstream of the transcription start site and has the canonical sequence TATAAAA. This site is required for normal rates of initiation; deletion of the site greatly reduces the amount of Ty917 mRNA without changing its 5' end. A second site is located in a region from 140 to 110 base pairs upstream of the start site. Unlike other upstream activation site (UAS) elements previously defined, the Ty917 UAS is not sufficient to promote any transcription in the absence of downstream transcription regulatory sites. Thus the UAS is necessary but not sufficient for maximal transcription. Comparison of constructs lacking either the UAS or the downstream enhancer or both shows evidence of synergistic interaction between the sites since the effect of the sites on the rate of transcription initiation is more than additive.

Full text

PDF
8520

Images in this article

8522Image
on p.8522

Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

  1. Adams S. E., Mellor J., Gull K., Sim R. B., Tuite M. F., Kingsman S. M., Kingsman A. J. The functions and relationships of Ty-VLP proteins in yeast reflect those of mammalian retroviral proteins. Cell. 1987 Apr 10;49(1):111–119. doi: 10.1016/0092-8674(87)90761-6. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. Boeke J. D., Garfinkel D. J., Styles C. A., Fink G. R. Ty elements transpose through an RNA intermediate. Cell. 1985 Mar;40(3):491–500. doi: 10.1016/0092-8674(85)90197-7. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  3. Cameron J. R., Loh E. Y., Davis R. W. Evidence for transposition of dispersed repetitive DNA families in yeast. Cell. 1979 Apr;16(4):739–751. doi: 10.1016/0092-8674(79)90090-4. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  4. Casadaban M. J., Martinez-Arias A., Shapira S. K., Chou J. Beta-galactosidase gene fusions for analyzing gene expression in escherichia coli and yeast. Methods Enzymol. 1983;100:293–308. doi: 10.1016/0076-6879(83)00063-4. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  5. Chen W., Struhl K. Yeast mRNA initiation sites are determined primarily by specific sequences, not by the distance from the TATA element. EMBO J. 1985 Dec 1;4(12):3273–3280. doi: 10.1002/j.1460-2075.1985.tb04077.x. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  6. Ciriacy M. Isolation and characterization of further cis- and trans-acting regulatory elements involved in the synthesis of glucose-repressible alcohol dehydrogenase (ADHII) in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Mol Gen Genet. 1979 Nov;176(3):427–431. doi: 10.1007/BF00333107. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  7. Clare J., Farabaugh P. Nucleotide sequence of a yeast Ty element: evidence for an unusual mechanism of gene expression. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1985 May;82(9):2829–2833. doi: 10.1073/pnas.82.9.2829. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  8. Dubois E., Jacobs E., Jauniaux J. C. Expression of the ROAM mutations in Saccharomyces cerevisiae: involvement of trans-acting regulatory elements and relation with the Ty1 transcription. EMBO J. 1982;1(9):1133–1139. doi: 10.1002/j.1460-2075.1982.tb01308.x. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  9. Dynan W. S., Tjian R. Control of eukaryotic messenger RNA synthesis by sequence-specific DNA-binding proteins. 1985 Aug 29-Sep 4Nature. 316(6031):774–778. doi: 10.1038/316774a0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  10. Elder R. T., Loh E. Y., Davis R. W. RNA from the yeast transposable element Ty1 has both ends in the direct repeats, a structure similar to retrovirus RNA. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1983 May;80(9):2432–2436. doi: 10.1073/pnas.80.9.2432. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  11. Errede B., Cardillo T. S., Wever G., Sherman F., Stiles J. I., Friedman L. R., Sherman F. Studies on transposable elements in yeast. I. ROAM mutations causing increased expression of yeast genes: their activation by signals directed toward conjugation functions and their formation by insertion of Ty1 repetitive elements. II. deletions, duplications, and transpositions of the COR segment that encompasses the structural gene of yeast iso-1-cytochrome c. Cold Spring Harb Symp Quant Biol. 1981;45(Pt 2):593–607. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  12. Errede B., Company M., Ferchak J. D., Hutchison C. A., 3rd, Yarnell W. S. Activation regions in a yeast transposon have homology to mating type control sequences and to mammalian enhancers. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1985 Aug;82(16):5423–5427. doi: 10.1073/pnas.82.16.5423. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  13. Farabaugh P. J., Fink G. R. Insertion of the eukaryotic transposable element Ty1 creates a 5-base pair duplication. Nature. 1980 Jul 24;286(5771):352–356. doi: 10.1038/286352a0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  14. Fried M., Crothers D. M. Equilibria and kinetics of lac repressor-operator interactions by polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. Nucleic Acids Res. 1981 Dec 11;9(23):6505–6525. doi: 10.1093/nar/9.23.6505. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  15. Garfinkel D. J., Boeke J. D., Fink G. R. Ty element transposition: reverse transcriptase and virus-like particles. Cell. 1985 Sep;42(2):507–517. doi: 10.1016/0092-8674(85)90108-4. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  16. Garner M. M., Revzin A. A gel electrophoresis method for quantifying the binding of proteins to specific DNA regions: application to components of the Escherichia coli lactose operon regulatory system. Nucleic Acids Res. 1981 Jul 10;9(13):3047–3060. doi: 10.1093/nar/9.13.3047. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  17. Guarente L., Mason T. Heme regulates transcription of the CYC1 gene of S. cerevisiae via an upstream activation site. Cell. 1983 Apr;32(4):1279–1286. doi: 10.1016/0092-8674(83)90309-4. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  18. Guarente L., Yocum R. R., Gifford P. A GAL10-CYC1 hybrid yeast promoter identifies the GAL4 regulatory region as an upstream site. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1982 Dec;79(23):7410–7414. doi: 10.1073/pnas.79.23.7410. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  19. Hahn S., Hoar E. T., Guarente L. Each of three "TATA elements" specifies a subset of the transcription initiation sites at the CYC-1 promoter of Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1985 Dec;82(24):8562–8566. doi: 10.1073/pnas.82.24.8562. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  20. Hauber J., Nelböck-Hochstetter P., Feldmann H. Nucleotide sequence and characteristics of a Ty element from yeast. Nucleic Acids Res. 1985 Apr 25;13(8):2745–2758. doi: 10.1093/nar/13.8.2745. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  21. Ito H., Fukuda Y., Murata K., Kimura A. Transformation of intact yeast cells treated with alkali cations. J Bacteriol. 1983 Jan;153(1):163–168. doi: 10.1128/jb.153.1.163-168.1983. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  22. McNeil J. B., Smith M. Saccharomyces cerevisiae CYC1 mRNA 5'-end positioning: analysis by in vitro mutagenesis, using synthetic duplexes with random mismatch base pairs. Mol Cell Biol. 1985 Dec;5(12):3545–3551. doi: 10.1128/mcb.5.12.3545. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  23. Mellor J., Malim M. H., Gull K., Tuite M. F., McCready S., Dibbayawan T., Kingsman S. M., Kingsman A. J. Reverse transcriptase activity and Ty RNA are associated with virus-like particles in yeast. Nature. 1985 Dec 12;318(6046):583–586. doi: 10.1038/318583a0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  24. Miller A. M. The yeast MATa1 gene contains two introns. EMBO J. 1984 May;3(5):1061–1065. doi: 10.1002/j.1460-2075.1984.tb01927.x. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  25. Müller F., Brühl K. H., Freidel K., Kowallik K. V., Ciriacy M. Processing of TY1 proteins and formation of Ty1 virus-like particles in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Mol Gen Genet. 1987 May;207(2-3):421–429. doi: 10.1007/BF00331610. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  26. Nagawa F., Fink G. R. The relationship between the "TATA" sequence and transcription initiation sites at the HIS4 gene of Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1985 Dec;82(24):8557–8561. doi: 10.1073/pnas.82.24.8557. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  27. Ogden J. E., Stanway C., Kim S., Mellor J., Kingsman A. J., Kingsman S. M. Efficient expression of the Saccharomyces cerevisiae PGK gene depends on an upstream activation sequence but does not require TATA sequences. Mol Cell Biol. 1986 Dec;6(12):4335–4343. doi: 10.1128/mcb.6.12.4335. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  28. Roeder G. S., Farabaugh P. J., Chaleff D. T., Fink G. R. The origins of gene instability in yeast. Science. 1980 Sep 19;209(4463):1375–1380. doi: 10.1126/science.6251544. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  29. Roeder G. S., Rose A. B., Pearlman R. E. Transposable element sequences involved in the enhancement of yeast gene expression. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1985 Aug;82(16):5428–5432. doi: 10.1073/pnas.82.16.5428. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  30. Sanger F., Nicklen S., Coulson A. R. DNA sequencing with chain-terminating inhibitors. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1977 Dec;74(12):5463–5467. doi: 10.1073/pnas.74.12.5463. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  31. Struhl K. Genetic properties and chromatin structure of the yeast gal regulatory element: an enhancer-like sequence. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1984 Dec;81(24):7865–7869. doi: 10.1073/pnas.81.24.7865. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  32. Struhl K. Promoters, activator proteins, and the mechanism of transcriptional initiation in yeast. Cell. 1987 May 8;49(3):295–297. doi: 10.1016/0092-8674(87)90277-7. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  33. Williamson V. M., Young E. T., Ciriacy M. Transposable elements associated with constitutive expression of yeast alcohol dehydrogenase II. Cell. 1981 Feb;23(2):605–614. doi: 10.1016/0092-8674(81)90156-2. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  34. Winston F., Chaleff D. T., Valent B., Fink G. R. Mutations affecting Ty-mediated expression of the HIS4 gene of Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Genetics. 1984 Jun;107(2):179–197. doi: 10.1093/genetics/107.2.179. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

Articles from Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America are provided here courtesy of National Academy of Sciences

RESOURCES