Evolution of a glucose-regulated ADH gene in the genus Saccharomyces.

To determine when a glucose-repressed alcohol dehydrogenase isozyme and its regulatory gene, ADR1, arose during evolution, we surveyed species of the genus Saccharomyces for glucose-repressed ADH isozymes and for ADR1 homologues. Glucose-repressed ADH isozymes were present in all species of Saccharomyces sensu strictu and also in Saccharomyces kluyveri, the most distant member of the Saccharomyces clade. We cloned and characterized ADH promoters from S. bayanus, S. douglasii, and S. kluyveri. The ADH promoters from S. bayanus and S. douglasii had conserved sequences, including upstream regulatory elements, and an extended polydA tract. The expression of a reporter gene driven by the S. bayanus promoter was glucose-repressed and dependent on the major activator of transcription, ADR1, when it was introduced into S. cerevisiae. One S. kluyveri promoter was also glucose-repressed and ADR1-dependent in S. cerevisiae. The other S. kluyveri ADH promoter was expressed constitutively and was ADR1-independent. Although showing little sequence conservation with the S. cerevisiae ADH2 promoter, the glucose-repressed S. kluyveri promoter contains numerous potential binding sites for Adr1. The glucose-repressed ADH from S. kluyveri is a mitochondrial isozyme most closely related to S. cerevisiae ADHIII. ADR1 homologues from S. douglasii and S. paradoxus contain a trinucleotide repeat encoding polyAsn that is lacking in S. cerevisiae and S. bayanus. No ADR1 homologue could be detected in S. kluyveri, suggesting that the potential for Adr1 regulation may have arisen first, before ADR1 evolved.