Expression of the Sclerotinia sclerotiorum polygalacturonase pg1 gene: possible involvement of CREA in glucose catabolite repression.

Northern-blot analysis of RNA isolated from Sclerotinia sclerotiorum grown on either glucose or polygalacturonate as the sole carbon source showed that pg1, encoding a neutral polygalacturonase, was not expressed during growth in both media. In contrast, transcripts of this gene were detected during infection of sunflower germlings. Analysis of the promoter sequence revealed a number of cis-acting sequences known to regulate the expression of many fungal promoters. Protein-DNA-binding experiments showed that proteins extracted from mycelia grown on polygalacturonate or glucose interacted with different regions of the promoter. The GST-CREA fusion protein, containing the two zinc fingers of the Aspergillus nidulans repressor CREA involved in carbon catabolite repression, forms several complexes with DNA fragments carrying the consensus 5'-SYGGRG-3'. These results suggest that a CREA homolog may be involved in the regulation of pg1.