title: Conserved and Diverged Functions of the Calcineurin-Activated Prz1 Transcription Factor in Fission Yeast.
abstract: Gene regulation in response to intracellular calcium is mediated by the calcineurin-activated transcription factor Prz1 in the fission yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe Genome-wide studies of the Crz1 and CrzA fungal orthologs have uncovered numerous target genes involved in conserved and species-specific cellular processes. In contrast, very few target genes of Prz1 have been published. This article identifies an extensive list of genes using transcriptome and ChIP-chip analyses under inducing conditions of Prz1, including CaCl2 and tunicamycin treatment, as well as a ∆pmr1 genetic background. We identified 165 upregulated putative target genes of Prz1 in which the majority contained a calcium-dependent response element in their promoters, similar to that of the Saccharomyces cerevisiae ortholog Crz1 These genes were functionally enriched for Crz1-conserved processes such as cell-wall biosynthesis. Overexpression of prz1(+)increased resistance to the cell-wall degradation enzyme zymolyase, likely from upregulation of theO-mannosyltransferase encoding gene omh1(+) Loss of omh1(+)abrogates this phenotype. We uncovered a novel inhibitory role in flocculation for Prz1. Loss of prz1(+)resulted in constitutive flocculation and upregulation of genes encoding the flocculins Gsf2 and Pfl3, as well as the transcription factor Cbf12. The constitutive flocculation of the ∆prz1 strain was abrogated by the loss of gsf2(+) or cbf12(+) This study reveals that Prz1 functions as a positive and negative transcriptional regulator of genes involved in cell-wall biosynthesis and flocculation, respectively. Moreover, comparison of target genes between Crz1/CrzA and Prz1 indicate some conservation in DNA-binding specificity, but also substantial rewiring of the calcineurin-mediated transcriptional regulatory network.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biological Sciences, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta T2N 1N4, Canada.
authors.forename: Kate
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Chatfield-Reed
authors.affiliation: Department of Biological Sciences, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta T2N 1N4, Canada.
authors.forename: Lianne
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Vachon
authors.affiliation: Department of Biological Sciences, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta T2N 1N4, Canada.
authors.forename: Eun-Joo Gina
authors.initials: EJ
authors.lastname: Kwon
authors.affiliation: Department of Biological Sciences, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta T2N 1N4, Canada gchua@ucalgary.ca.
authors.forename: Gordon
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Chua
mesh_terms: D001665:Binding Sites; D005075:Biological Evolution; D019703:Calcineurin / Q000378:metabolism; D002118:Calcium / Q000378:metabolism; D002473:Cell Wall / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D016000:Cluster Analysis; D005427:Flocculation; D020869:Gene Expression Profiling; D015966:Gene Expression Regulation, Fungal; D056726:Genetic Association Studies; D014644:Genetic Variation; D016681:Genome, Fungal; D055106:Genome-Wide Association Study; D059372:Nucleotide Motifs; D011401:Promoter Regions, Genetic; D011485:Protein Binding; D012568:Schizosaccharomyces / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism*; D029702:Schizosaccharomyces pombe Proteins / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism*; D014157:Transcription Factors / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism*; D014158:Transcription, Genetic
chemical_list: C000593219:Prz1 protein, S pombe; D029702:Schizosaccharomyces pombe Proteins; D014157:Transcription Factors; D019703:Calcineurin; D002118:Calcium
keywords: calcium; cell wall; fission yeast; flocculation; transcription factor