Identification of UAS elements and binding proteins necessary for derepression of Saccharomyces cerevisiae...

Fructose-1,6-bisphosphatase is a key enzyme in gluconeogenesis and the FBP1 gene is not transcribed during growth with glucose. Genetic analysis indicated a positive regulation of FBP1 expression after exhaustion of glucose. By linker-deletion analysis, two upstream activation sites (UAS1 and UAS2) were localized and the respective UAS-binding factors (DAP I and DAP II for derepression activating protein) were identified by gel retardation. UAS1 and UAS2 span about 30 bp each, and are separated by approximately 30 bp. Both UAS sites act synergistically. Although UAS1 showed some similarities to the DNA-binding consensus for the general yeast activator Rap1, competition experiments and DEAE-chromatography proved that DAP I and Rap1 correspond to different proteins. Gel retardation by DAP I depended on carbon sources and did not occur in cells growing logarithmically with glucose, whereas a strong retardation signal was obtained with ethanol-grown cells. The present results suggest that DAP I and DAP II are the final regulatory elements for glucose derepression.