Eukaryotic Cell doi:10.1128/EC.00183-06
Copyright (c) 2006, American Society for Microbiology and/or the Listed Authors/Institutions. All Rights Reserved.
Transcriptional activation domains of the Candida albicans Gcn4p and Gal4p homologs
Mikhail Martchenko,
Anastasia Levitin,
and
Malcolm Whiteway*
Department of Biology, McGill University, Stewart Biology Building, 1205 Avenue Docteur Penfield, Montreal, Quebec, Canada H3A 1B1; Genetics Group, Biotechnology Research Institute, National Research Council, Montreal, Quebec, Canada H4P 2R2
* To whom correspondence should be addressed. Email:
malcolm.whiteway{at}cnrc-nrc.gc.ca.
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Abstract |
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Many putative transcription factors in the pathogenic fungus Candida albicans contain sequence similarity to well-defined transcriptional regulators in the budding yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae, but this sequence similarity is often limited to the DNA binding domain of the molecules. The Gcn4p and Gal4p proteins of Saccharomyces cerevisiae are highly studied and well-understood eukaryotic transcription factors of the bZip (Gcn4p) and C6 zinc cluster (Gal4p) families; C. albicans has CaGcn4p and CaGal4p with DNA binding domains highly similar to their yeast counterparts. Deletion analysis of the CaGcn4p protein shows that the N' terminus is needed for transcriptional activation; an 81 amino acid region is critical for this function, and this domain can be coupled to a lexA DNA-binding module to provide transcription activating function in a heterologous reporter system. Deletion analysis of the C. albicans Gal4p identifies a C-terminal 73 amino acid long transcription activating domain that also can be transferred to a heterologous reporter construct to direct transcriptional activation. These two transcriptional activation regions show no sequence similarity to the respective domains in their S. cerevisiae homologs, and the two C. albicans transcription activating domains themselves show little similarity.
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