Characterization of the yeast ARG5,6 gene: determination of the nucleotide sequence, analysis of the control region and of ARG5,6 transcript.

In Saccharomyces cerevisiae, the ARG5,6 gene encodes acetylglutamyl-P reductase and acetylglutamate kinase, two arginine anabolic enzymes which are localized in the mitochondria. The synthesis of both enzymes is co-ordinately controlled by arginine and by three regulatory proteins (ARGRI, ARGRII, and ARGRIII). The ARG5,6 gene was cloned by complementation of an arg5 mutant strain. A subclone containing an EcoRI fragment of about 3.2 kb which complements the arginine requirement was sequenced. This 3163 bp sequence contains only one long open reading frame of 2589 nucleotides encoding a protein of 863 amino acids. The size of this protein is in agreement with the length of the unique transcript determined by Northern hybridization. The measurements of ARG5,6 mRNA under various regulatory conditions show no correlation with the enzyme levels. As in other arginine biosynthetic and catabolic genes, the regulation by arginine through the three ARGR proteins thus involves a post-transcriptional control mechanism. By in vitro mutagenesis we created point mutations and deletions in the 5' non-coding region of the ARG5,6 gene which allowed us to define the primary target of ARGR control. Specific regulation involves two regions: one located between the putative TATA element and the transcriptional initiation site and the second between this site and the first ATG.