Schultes N P, Szostak J W
Department of Molecular Biology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston 02114.
Mol Cell Biol. 1991 Jan;11(1):322-8. doi: 10.1128/mcb.11.1.322-328.1991.
An initiation site for meiotic gene conversion is located in the promoter region of the ARG4 locus in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. We have tested the hypothesis that the initiation site is identical with the promoter by making a series of small deletions that remove specific promoter elements. Disruption of most promoter elements does not lower the level of gene conversion in ARG4, and analysis of RNA levels at the time of recombination in meiosis reveals no direct correlation between the level of ARG4 transcript and the level of gene conversion in ARG4. However, deletion of a tract of 14 A residues located at the peak of the gene conversion gradient decreases the number of gene conversion events stimulated by the initiation site to 25 to 35% of the normal level. We conclude that the poly(dA.dT) tract is responsible for most but not all of the high levels of meiotic gene conversion observed in ARG4.
减数分裂基因转换的起始位点位于酿酒酵母中ARG4基因座的启动子区域。我们通过进行一系列去除特定启动子元件的小缺失实验,来检验起始位点与启动子相同这一假说。大多数启动子元件的破坏并不会降低ARG4基因转换的水平,并且对减数分裂重组时RNA水平的分析表明,ARG4转录本水平与ARG4基因转换水平之间没有直接关联。然而,缺失位于基因转换梯度峰值处的一段14个A残基,会使起始位点刺激的基因转换事件数量降至正常水平的25%至35%。我们得出结论,聚(dA.dT)序列负责ARG4中观察到的大部分但并非全部高水平减数分裂基因转换。