Phylogenetic footprinting reveals multiple regulatory elements involved in control of the meiotic recombination gene, REC102.

REC102 is a meiosis-specific early exchange gene absolutely required for meiotic recombination in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Sequence analysis of REC102 indicates that there are multiple potential regulatory elements in its promoter region, and a possible regulatory element in the coding region. This suggests that the regulation of REC102 may be complex and may include elements not yet reported in other meiotic genes. To identify potential cis-regulatory elements, phylogenetic footprinting analysis was used. REC102 homologues were cloned from other two Saccharomyces spp. and sequence comparison among the three species defined evolutionarily conserved elements. Deletion analysis demonstrated that the early meiotic gene regulatory element URS1 was necessary but not sufficient for proper regulation of REC102. Upstream elements, including the binding sites for Gcr1p, Yap1p, Rap1p and several novel conserved sequences, are also required for the normal regulation of REC102 as well as a Rap1p binding site located in the coding region. The data in this paper support the use of phylogenetic comparisions as a method for determining important sequences in complex promoters.