Metabolic control and autogenous regulation of nit-3, the nitrate reductase structural gene of Neurospora crassa.

In Neurospora crassa, the expression of nit-3, the structural gene which encodes nitrate reductase, is highly regulated and requires both nitrate induction and nitrogen catabolite derepression. The major nitrogen regulatory gene, nit-2, acts in a positive fashion to turn on the expression of nit-3 and other nitrogen-related genes during nitrogen derepression. A second regulatory gene, designated nmr, acts in a negative fashion to repress the expression of nitrate reductase and related enzymes, and nmr mutants are partially insensitive to nitrogen repression. Using cloned genes as specific hybridization probes, we demonstrated that nmr does not affect the transcription of nit-2 but does appear to control nit-3 gene expression. Unlike nmr+ expression, nit-3 expression occurred to some degree even under nitrogen repression conditions in nmr mutant cells. In wild-type cells, nitrate reductase gene expression was dependent upon the presence of nitrate as an inducer. In sharp contrast, nit-3 mRNA expression occurred to a full extent in three different nit-3 mutants, even in the complete absence of any added inducer. Similarly, a nit-1 mutant which was devoid of nitrate reductase activity because it lacked an essential molybdenum cofactor expressed nit-3 without a requirement for induction by nitrate. These results suggest that nitrate reductase autogenously regulates its own expression and that this control is exerted at the transcriptional level.