The Prr1 response regulator is essential for transcription of ste11+ and for sexual development in fission yeast.
Schizosaccharomyces pombe expresses a putative transcription factor, named Prr1, which is intriguing in the sense that it contains a bacterial type of phospho-accepting receiver domain, preceded by a mammalian heat shock factor (HSF2)-like DNA-binding domain. The receiver domain is most probably involved in an as yet unidentified histidine-to-aspartate (His-to-Asp) phosphorelay pathway in S. pombe. In this study, the structure, function, and cellular localization of Prr1 were assessed in the context of oxidative stress and His-to-Asp phosphorelay. As the most intriguing result of this study, we found that Prr1 is essential not only for the expression of genes induced by oxidative stress (e.g., ctt1+ and trr1+), but also for the expression of ste11+, which in turn is responsible for the expression of a variety of genes required for sexual development. Accordingly, Prr1-deficient cells are not only hypersensitive to oxidative stress, but also severely defective in conjugation and/or spore formation. These results suggested that the transcription factor Prr1 plays a pivotal role in an as yet unknown signal transduction pathway that is implicated in sexual differentiation. These findings are discussed with special reference to the well-characterized transcription factors Pap1 and Atf1 of S. pombe.
Ohmiya
R
R
Laboratory of Molecular Microbiology, School of Agriculture, Nagoya University, Japan.
Yamada
H
H
Kato
C
C
Aiba
H
H
Mizuno
T
T
D051697:Activating Transcription Factor 1; D050976:Basic-Leucine Zipper Transcription Factors; D004271:DNA, Fungal / Q000378:metabolism; D004268:DNA-Binding Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D005656:Fungal Proteins / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism*; D005800:Genes, Fungal; D009584:Nitrogen / Q000378:metabolism; D018384:Oxidative Stress; D000073718:Pancreatitis-Associated Proteins; D012568:Schizosaccharomyces / Q000235:genetics* / Q000254:growth & development / Q000378:metabolism*; D029702:Schizosaccharomyces pombe Proteins; D015398:Signal Transduction; D014157:Transcription Factors / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism*
D051697:Activating Transcription Factor 1; D050976:Basic-Leucine Zipper Transcription Factors; D004271:DNA, Fungal; D004268:DNA-Binding Proteins; D005656:Fungal Proteins; C107929:PALF protein, Emericella nidulans; D000073718:Pancreatitis-Associated Proteins; C105096:Pap1 protein, S pombe; C000612141:REG3A protein, human; D029702:Schizosaccharomyces pombe Proteins; D014157:Transcription Factors; C071596:ste11 protein, S pombe; D009584:Nitrogen