The UGA3 gene regulating the GABA catabolic pathway in Saccharomyces cerevisiae codes for a putative zinc-finger protein acting on RNA amount.

The UGA3 gene of Saccharomyces cerevisiae is required for 4-aminobutyric acid (GABA)-dependent induction of the UGA1, UGA2 and UGA4 genes which encode the two GABA catabolic enzymes and a GABA-specific permease, respectively. Measurements of UGA1-specific transcripts show that induction of UGA1 correlates with accumulation of its RNA and requires a functional UGA3 gene. A 2 kb DNA fragment complementing the uga3 mutation was isolated and shown to contain the UGA3 gene. The primary structure of the UGA3 encoded protein was deduced from the DNA sequence, and contains an N-terminal, cysteine-rich motif similar in sequence to regions found in other fungal regulatory proteins and which are supposed to form zinc finger structures involved in DNA binding. Mutations were identified in the UGA3 genes isolated from uninducible and constitutive uga3 alleles. One case of intragenic complementation between two uninducible uga3 mutants is reported, indicating a possible oligomeric structure for UGAe. The role of UGA3 is discussed in relation to its genetic properties and its predicted structure.