Structure and sequence of a UDP glucose pyrophosphorylase gene of Dictyostelium discoideum

Cell-cell contact and exogenous cAMP regulate the expression of uridine diphosphoglucose pyrophosphorylase (UDPGP) of Dictyostelium discoideum (B. Haribabu, A. Rajkovic and R. P. Dottin, 1986, Dev. Biol., Vol. 113, 436-442). cAMP appears to regulate gene expression in Dictyostelium by transmembrane signal transduction (B. Haribabu and R. Dottin, 1986, Mol. Cell. Biol. 6, 2402-2408). To further characterize the mechanism of action of cAMP on the expression of this gene and the nature of the defects in UDPGP mutants that abort development, we sequenced the cDNA and the genomic DNA, including intervening and flanking sequences. The deduced amino acid sequence predicts a polypeptide of 57,893 d. molecular weight. Three short (100-200 nucleotides) A+T rich introns occur within the coding sequences but only one of them contains a sequence TAACTAAC, similar to the yeast lariat acceptor site. The 5' flanking sequences are also A+T rich and contain an oligo A tract (-14 to -24), a TATA box (-25 to -32), and a short G+C rich region (-63 to -101) which may be a control region. From -196 to -209 is a sequence AAAGTAGTATTCAA which matches in 11 of its 14 nucleotides, a sequence found upstream from the hormonally regulated P-enolypyruvate carboxykinase gene of rat.