Expression of Dictyostelium early gene, dutA, is independent of cAMP pulses but dependent on protein kinase A.

The untranslatable, RNA polymerase II-dependent gene (dutA) of Dictyostelium discoideum is induced early in development. However, unlike other early genes, dutA induction was not affected by cAMP pulses and occurred normally in various cAMP-related mutant cells, the results indicating that this induction depended solely on factors other than cAMP. In the knockout strain of the catalytic subunit of protein kinase A, dutA expression was severely blocked and not recovered by cAMP pulses. This demonstrates that even the cAMP-independent gene, dutA, requires protein kinase A for its expression.