Glucose repression of LAC gene expression in yeast is mediated by the transcriptional activator LAC9.

In the yeast Kluyveromyces lactis the beta-galactosidase gene is induced by lactose or galactose. As shown here it can also be repressed by glucose but only in some strains. When the LAC9 gene of a repressible strain is substituted by an allele of a non-repressible strain, the beta-galactosidase gene is no longer glucose repressed. LAC9 codes for a regulatory protein homologous to GAL4 which activates transcription in the presence of the inducer. Since the LAC9 product is also present in the repressed strain and binds to DNA in vitro, as shown by DNA footprinting, glucose repression cannot be caused by repression of LAC9 gene expression. Instead, our results demonstrate that glucose repression is mediated by the LAC9 gene product, and is separable from the ability of LAC9 to activate transcription.