Isolation of the carbon catabolite repressor (CREA) gene from the plant-pathogenic fungus Cochliobolus carbonum.

The CREA gene has been implicated in glucose repression in several fungi. The product of this gene, CreA, binds to the promoter region of several enzymes and down-regulates gene expression. An ortholog of CREA was isolated and characterized from the maize pathogenic fungus, Cochliobolus carbonum. The deduced amino acid sequence of the C. carbonum CREA gene is very similar to the CreA proteins of Aspergillus niger, Gibberella fujikuroi, Sclerotinia sclerotiorum and Trichoderma reesei, as well as the Mig1 protein of Saccharomyces cerevisiae. And like the other fungal proteins, C. carbonum CreA has two zinc finger regions and a nuclear localization signal. Putative CreA binding sequences were also identified in the 5' region of three C. carbonum cell wall degrading enzyme genes suggesting that the protein may play a role in the regulatory process that controls these enzymes expression.