An essential gene in Saccharomyces cerevisiae shares an upstream regulatory element with PRP4

ORF2 is an essential gene immediately upstream of PRP4 (formerly RNA4), a gene involved in nuclear mRNA processing in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. The two genes are arranged head-to-head. An 8 base-pair conserved sequence element is found upstream of both genes, as well as upstream of certain other genes that are known to be involved in pre-mRNA processing. Through deletion analysis we have found that both of the conserved sequence elements are important for transcription of both genes. We have cloned ORF2 and have isolated temperature-sensitive orf2 mutants. The phenotype of these mutants does not suggest a role for ORF2 in mRNA processing. The deduced amino acid sequence of ORF2 indicates significant similarity to DPR1, a gene encoding a protein that is involved in the carboxy-terminal processing of G-protein.