title: Zinc-dependent regulation of the Adh1 antisense transcript in fission yeast.
abstract: In yeast, Adh1 (alcohol dehydrogenase 1) is an abundant zinc-binding protein that is required for the conversion of acetaldehyde to ethanol. Through transcriptome profiling of the Schizosaccharomyces pombe genome, we identified a natural antisense transcript at the adh1 locus that is induced in response to zinc limitation. This antisense transcript (adh1AS) shows a reciprocal expression pattern to that of the adh1 mRNA partner. In this study, we show that increased expression of the adh1AS transcript in zinc-limited cells is necessary for the repression of adh1 gene expression and that the increased level of the adh1AS transcript in zinc-limited cells is a result of two mechanisms. At the transcriptional level, the adh1AS transcript is expressed at a high level in zinc-limited cells. In addition to this transcriptional control, adh1AS transcripts preferentially accumulate in zinc-limited cells when the adh1AS transcript is expressed from a constitutive promoter. This secondary mechanism requires the simultaneous expression of adh1. Our studies reveal how multiple mechanisms can synergistically control the ratio of sense to antisense transcripts and highlight a novel mechanism by which adh1 gene expression can be controlled by cellular zinc availability.
authors.affiliation: Department of Molecular Genetics, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio 43210, USA.
authors.forename: Kate M
authors.initials: KM
authors.lastname: Ehrensberger
authors.forename: Carter
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Mason
authors.forename: Mark E
authors.initials: ME
authors.lastname: Corkins
authors.forename: Cole
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Anderson
authors.forename: Natalie
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Dutrow
authors.forename: Bradley R
authors.initials: BR
authors.lastname: Cairns
authors.forename: Brian
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Dalley
authors.forename: Brett
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Milash
authors.forename: Amanda J
authors.initials: AJ
authors.lastname: Bird
mesh_terms: D000426:Alcohol Dehydrogenase / Q000235:genetics*; D015971:Gene Expression Regulation, Enzymologic / Q000502:physiology*; D015966:Gene Expression Regulation, Fungal / Q000502:physiology*; D005800:Genes, Fungal; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D016372:RNA, Antisense / Q000235:genetics; D012333:RNA, Messenger / Q000235:genetics*; D012568:Schizosaccharomyces / Q000235:genetics*; D059467:Transcriptome; D015032:Zinc / Q000502:physiology*
chemical_list: D016372:RNA, Antisense; D012333:RNA, Messenger; D000426:Alcohol Dehydrogenase; D015032:Zinc