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. 1990 Mar;10(3):1056–1065. doi: 10.1128/mcb.10.3.1056

nit-2, the major nitrogen regulatory gene of Neurospora crassa, encodes a protein with a putative zinc finger DNA-binding domain.

Y H Fu 1, G A Marzluf 1
PMCID: PMC360966  PMID: 2137552

Abstract

The nitrogen regulatory circuit of Neurospora crassa consists of a set of unlinked structural genes which specify various nitrogen catabolic enzymes plus control genes and metabolic effectors which regulate their expression. The positive-acting nit-2 regulatory gene is required to turn on the expression of the nitrogen catabolic enzymes during conditions of nitrogen limitation. The complete nucleotide sequence of the nit-2 gene was determined. The nit-2 mRNA is 4.3 kilobases long and has a long nontranslated sequence at both its 5' and 3' ends. The nit-2 gene nucleotide sequence can be translated to yield a protein containing 1,036 amino acid residues with a molecular weight of approximately 110,000. Deletion analyses demonstrated that approximately 21% of the NIT2 protein at its carboxy terminus can be removed without loss of function. The nit-2 protein contains a single putative Cys2/Cys2 zinc finger domain which appears to function in DNA binding and which has striking homology to a mammalian trans-acting factor, GF-1.

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Selected References

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