Carbon source-dependent regulation of the Schizosaccharomyces pombe pbh1 gene

Pbh1, from the fission yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe, is a baculoviral inhibitor of apoptosis (IAP) repeat (BIR) domain-containing protein. Its unique encoding gene was previously found to be regulated by nitric oxide and nitrogen starvation. In the current work, the Pbh1-lacZ fusion gene was used to elucidate the transcriptional regulation of the pbh1 gene under various carbon sources. When fermentable carbon sources, such as glucose (at a low concentration of 0.2%), sucrose (2.0%) and lactose (2.0%), were the sole carbon source, the synthesis of beta-galactosidase from the Pbh1-lacZ fusion gene was reasonably enhanced. However, the induction by these fermentable carbon sources was abolished in the Pap1-negative S. pombe cells, implying that this type of induction of the pbh1 gene is mediated by Pap1. Ethanol (2.0%), a nonfermentable carbon source, was also able to enhance the synthesis of beta-galactosidase from the fusion gene in wild-type cells but not in Pap1-negative cells. The results indicate that the S. pombe pbh1 gene is up-regulated under metabolic oxidative stress in a Pap1-dependent manner.