A eukaryotic repressor protein, the qa-1S gene product of Neurospora crassa, is homologous to part of the arom multifunctional enzyme.

Little is known about the proteins involved in the control of gene expression in eukaryotes. Although some of these proteins have been sequenced, their biochemical functions are not well understood and the identification of homologies to proteins of known activities may give useful clues to the functions of these regulatory proteins. We report here that the qa-1S repressor protein of the fungus Neurospora crassa is strongly homologous to the pentafunctional arom enzyme found in many lower eukaryotes. We believe that this is the first known case of a repressor protein that is unequivocally homologous to metabolic enzymes. These findings allow us to propose likely functions for some regions of the qa-1S protein.