Isolation and characterization of the regulatory HEX2 gene necessary for glucose repression in yeast.

The HEX2 gene which is necessary for glucose repression and is involved in the regulation of hexokinase PII synthesis and maltose uptake, has been cloned by complementation of a hex2 mutant, and selection for restored growth on maltose. Glucose repression in the transformants was like that in the wild type. The HEX2 gene was localized within a 2.15 kb fragment. The restriction map was confirmed by Southern hybridization of genomic DNA. Based on 30 tetrads, the linkage between HEX2 and TRP1 was determined as 10 cM. Plasmid integration directed to the genomic site of the cloned gene also gave a similar linkage distance between the amino acid auxotroph plasmid marker and genomic TRP1. Gene disruption of HEX2 yielded nonrepressible transformants with elevated hexokinase PII activity showing inhibition by maltose; this provides clear evidence that the HEX2 gene has been isolated.