Expression in Saccharomyces cerevisiae of human interferon-alpha directed by the TRP1 5' region

The complete 5' flanking region of the yeast TRP1 gene encoding N-(5'-phosphoribosyl)- anthranilate isomerase, a nonabundant protein, has been cloned and the nucleotide sequence data has been extended from -102 to -440. The CT block--CAAG structure common to all efficiently expressed yeast genes is altered in the 5' region of TRP1 and a sequence postulated to be involved in general amino acid regulation is absent. There are two possible TATA boxes at -224 and -262. TRP1, in common with HIS3, HIS4 and TRP5 has a region of dyad symmetry upstream of the coding sequence which may play a role in initiation of transcription. The relative efficiency of gene expression directed by the complete 5' TRP1 region was assessed by comparison with that of PGK by inserting a cDNA for a human interferon-alpha downstream of their respective 5' regions. The respective interferon yields indicate that their in vivo expression capabilities are a function of their 5' regions.