title: In praise of erroneous hypotheses.
abstract: In the sixties Cove and Pateman discovered that mutants of Aspergillus nidulans lacking nitrate reductase activity were constitutive for the expression of genes induced by nitrate and dependent on the transcription factor NirA. They proposed that the nitrate protein acted as a repressor, preventing the transcription factor activity of NirA. Nitrate-mediated regulation behaved similarly in other organisms. This "autogenous regulation hypothesis" has recently shown to be erroneous, in the very organism for which it was first proposed. Nevertheless this erroneous hypothesis have led to a thorough dissection of the process of regulation of nitrate assimilation and more importantly to a hypothesis bearing on the origin of metabolite-responsive transcription factors. In this article I discuss the heuristic value and evolutionary importance of autogenous regulation.
authors: Department of Microbiology, Imperial College, London SW7 2AZ, United Kingdom; Institut de Génétique et Microbiologie, CNRS UMR 8621, Université Paris-Sud, 91405 Orsay, France. Electronic address: c.scazzocchio@imperial.ac.uk.
authors: Claudio
authors: C
authors: Scazzocchio
mesh_terms: D005656:Fungal Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D005658:Fungi / Q000201:enzymology / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D015966:Gene Expression Regulation, Fungal; D006706:Homeostasis; D050901:Nitrate Reductase / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D009566:Nitrates / Q000378:metabolism; D014157:Transcription Factors / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D005656:Fungal Proteins; D009566:Nitrates; D014157:Transcription Factors; D050901:Nitrate Reductase
keywords: Autogenous regulation; Erroneous hypotheses; Nitrate assimilation; Transcription factor evolution