Identification of the genetic locus for the structural gene and a new regulatory gene for the synthesis of repressible alkaline phosphatase in Saccharomyces cerevisiae.

Two lines of evidence showed that the PHO8 gene encodes the structure of repressible, nonspecific alkaline phosphatase in Saccharomyces cerevisiae: (i) the enzyme produced by a temperature-sensitive pho8 mutant at the permissive temperature (25 degrees C) was more thermolabile than that of the wild-type strain, and (ii) the PHO8 gene showed a gene dosage effect on the enzyme activity. The pho8 locus has been mapped on chromosome IV, 8 centimorgans distal to rna3. A new mutant carrying the pho9 gene was isolated which lacks repressible alkaline phosphatase, but has the normal phenotype for the synthesis of repressible acid phosphatase. The pho9 gene segregated independently of all known pho-regulatory genes and did not show the gene dosage effect on repressible alkaline phosphatase activity. The pho9/pho9 diploid hardly sporulated and showed no commitment to intragenic recombination when it was inoculated on sporulation medium. Hence the pho9 mutant has a phenotype similar to the pep4 mutant, which was isolated as a pleiotropic mutant with reduced levels of proteinases A and B and carboxypeptidase Y. An allelism test indicated that pho9 and pep4 are allelic.