Primary structure homology between the product of yeast cell division control gene CDC28 and vertebrate oncogenes.

In the budding yeast, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, division is controlled in response to nutrient limitation and in preparation for conjugation. Cells deprived of an essential nutrient or responding to mating pheromones cease division and become synchronous in the G1 interval, apparently constrained from completing a critical event. This event has been given the operational designation of 'start'. We have isolated a large number of start mutations which confer on S. cerevisiae cells a conditional inability to complete start (Fig. 1) presumably because they define genes which must be expressed for the start event to be successfully completed. We have described the isolation on plasmids of one of the start genes, CDC28, by genetic complementation and initial characterization of its product. We now describe the DNA sequence of the gene CDC28.