Yeast YAP1 encodes a novel form of the jun family of transcriptional activator proteins.

The jun family of transcriptional activators includes mammalian AP-1 as well as the yeast regulatory protein GCN4. Recently, an additional transcriptional activator has been found in yeast that recognizes the TGACTCA sequence element common in GCN4/AP-1 sites. This factor was designated yAP-1. The structural gene for yAP-1 has now been isolated and characterized. The deduced amino acid sequence predicts a protein of 650 residues, considerably larger than GCN4 or c-Jun. The amino terminus of yAP-1 is homologous to the carboxy-terminal DNA-binding domains of GCN4 and c-Jun. Disruption of the YAP1 gene demonstrates this gene is not essential but is required for AP-1 recognition element-dependent transcriptional activation. DNA-affinity blots of proteins from YAP1 cells suggest the presence of additional TGACTCA-binding proteins other than GCN4 and yAP-1. Furthermore, expression of at least one of these related DNA-binding proteins appears to be under control of yAP-1.