Genes that can bypass the CLN requirement for Saccharomyces cerevisiae cell cycle START

Cell cycle START in Saccharomyces cerevisiae requires at least one of the three CLN genes (CLN1, CLN2, or CLN3). A total of 12 mutations bypassing this requirement were found to be dominant mutations in a single gene that we named BYC1 (for bypass of CLN requirement). We also isolated a plasmid that had cln bypass activity at a low copy number; the gene responsible was distinct from BYC1 and was identical to the recently described BCK2 gene. Strains carrying bck2::ARG4 disruption alleles were fully viable, but bck2::ARG4 completely suppressed the cln bypass activity of BYC1. swi4 and swi6 deletion alleles also efficiently suppressed BYC1 cln bypass activity; Swi4 and Swi6 are components of a transcription factor previously implicated in control of CLN1 and CLN2 expression. bck2::ARG4 was synthetically lethal with cln3 deletion, suggesting that CLN1 and CLN2 cannot function in the simultaneous absence of BCK2 and CLN3; this observation correlates with low expression of CLN1 and CLN2 in bck2 strains deprived of CLN3 function. Thus, factors implicated in CLN1 and CLN2 expression and/or function are also required for BYC1 function in the absence of all three CLN genes; this may suggest the involvement of other targets of Swi4, Swi6, and Bck2 in START.