Cysteine residues in the zinc finger and amino acids adjacent to the finger are necessary for DNA binding by the LAC9 regulatory protein of Kluyveromyces lactis.

LAC9 is a positive regulatory protein that controls transcription of the lactose-galactose regulon in Kluyveromyces lactis. LAC9 is homologous to the GAL4 protein of Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Both proteins have a single "zinc finger" which plays a role in DNA binding. We previously hypothesized (L. V. Wray, M. M. Witte, R. C. Dickson, and M. I. Riley, Mol. Cell. Biol. 7:1111-1121, 1987) that the DNA-binding domain of the LAC9 protein consisted of the zinc finger as well as a region of amino acids on the carboxyl-terminal side of the zinc finger. In this study we used oligonucleotide-directed mutagenesis to introduce 13 single-amino-acid changes into the proposed DNA-binding domain of the LAC9 protein. Variant LAC9 proteins carrying an amino acid substitution in any one of the four highly conserved Cys residues of the zinc finger had reduced DNA-binding activity, suggesting that each Cys is necessary for DNA binding. Three of four variant LAC9 proteins with amino acid substitutions located on the carboxyl-terminal side of the zinc finger had reduced DNA-binding activity. These results support our hypothesis that the DNA-binding domain of the LAC9 protein is composed of the zinc finger and the adjacent region on the carboxyl side of the zinc finger, a region that has the potential to form an alpha-helix. Finally, LAC9 proteins containing His residues substituted for the conserved Cys residues also had reduced DNA-binding activity, indicating that His residues are not equivalent to Cys residues, as had been previously thought.