Okazaki N, Okazaki K, Watanabe Y, Kato-Hayashi M, Yamamoto M, Okayama H
Okayama Cell Switching Project, ERATO, JRDC, Kyoto, Japan.
Mol Cell Biol. 1998 Feb;18(2):887-95. doi: 10.1128/MCB.18.2.887.
In the fission yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe, the onset of sexual development is controlled mainly by two external signals, nutrient starvation and mating pheromone availability. We have isolated a novel gene named rcd1+ as a key factor required for nitrogen starvation-induced sexual development. rcd1+ encodes a 283-amino-acid protein with no particular motifs. However, genes highly homologous to rcd1+ (encoding amino acids with >70% identity) are present at least in budding yeasts, plants, nematodes, and humans. Cells with rcd1+ deleted are sterile if sexual development is induced by nitrogen starvation but fertile if it is induced by glucose starvation. This results largely from a defect in nitrogen starvation-invoked induction of ste11+, a key transcriptional factor gene required for the onset of sexual development. The striking conservation of the gene throughout eukaryotes may suggest the presence of an evolutionarily conserved differentiation controlling system.
在裂殖酵母粟酒裂殖酵母中,有性发育的起始主要受两种外部信号控制,即营养饥饿和交配信息素的可用性。我们分离出了一个名为rcd1⁺的新基因,它是氮饥饿诱导的有性发育所需的关键因子。rcd1⁺编码一种283个氨基酸的蛋白质,没有特定的基序。然而,与rcd1⁺高度同源的基因(编码氨基酸的同一性>70%)至少存在于芽殖酵母、植物、线虫和人类中。如果通过氮饥饿诱导有性发育,缺失rcd1⁺的细胞是不育的,但如果通过葡萄糖饥饿诱导,则是可育的。这主要是由于氮饥饿引发的ste11⁺诱导缺陷所致,ste11⁺是有性发育起始所需的关键转录因子基因。该基因在整个真核生物中的显著保守性可能表明存在一种进化上保守的分化控制系统。