Evidence for ORC-dependent repression of budding yeast genes induced by starvation and other stresses

The highly conserved origin recognition complex (ORC) is required for repressing genes in the silent mating type loci of budding yeast. Here we report that at a non-permissive temperature, the temperature-sensitive orc2-1 mutation induces the expression of more than 500 genes, the majority of which are also induced during starvation of wild-type cells. Many genes induced by starvation or by the orc2-1 mutation are also induced by inactivation of proteins required for chromatin-mediated repression of transcription. Genes induced by the orc2-1 mutation, starvation, or inactivation of repressor proteins, map near ORC-binding loci significantly more frequently compared to all genes. Genes repressed by starvation map near ORC-binding sites less frequently compared to all genes, which suggests they have been evolutionarily excluded from regions of repressive chromatin near ORC-binding sites. Deletion of sequences containing ORC-binding sites near the DAL2 and DAL4 genes in the DAL gene cluster, which are induced by either the orc2-1 mutation or by starvation, constitutively activates these genes and abolishes their activation by the orc2-1 mutation. Our findings suggest a role for ORC in the repression of a large number of budding yeast genes induced by starvation or other aspects of a deleterious environment.