Molecular characterization of the cell cycle-regulated thymidylate synthase gene of Saccharomyces cerevisiae.

The complete nucleotide sequence of a 1.8-kilobase DNA fragment containing the cell cycle-regulated thymidylate synthase gene (TMP 1) of the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae is presented. This analysis has revealed a 912-base pair open reading frame which encodes a 304-amino acid residue protein with a calculated Mr of 35,007. The tmp1-6 and cdc21-1 mutant alleles of this gene also have been sequenced, and both show single base pair changes which would result in different amino acid substitutions. The amino acid sequence of the yeast thymidylate synthase gene derived from the DNA sequence shows considerable homology when compared with the human, mouse, Herpesvirus saimiri, Leishmania major, Leishmania tropica, Escherichia coli, Lactobacillus casei, bacteriophage T4, and Bacillus subtilis phage phi 3T enzymes. Northern blot hybridization reveals that the TMP 1 mRNA is a 1.15-kilobase polyadenylated transcript. A set of consensus yeast mRNA splice sequences appears within the open reading frame of TMP 1, but S1 nuclease protection experiments reveal that splicing of the mRNA does not occur. Disruption of the gene by the introduction of a large insertion did not produce any defect besides the expected dependence on dTMP for growth. Specifically, the viability of the mutants in the presence of dTMP indicates that the protein does not play a significant structural role in a complex of replication enzymes.