Schizosaccharomyces pombe thiamine pyrophosphokinase is encoded by gene tnr3 and is a regulator of thiamine metabolism, phosphate metabolism, mating, and growth.

The Schizosaccharomyces pombe gene tnr3 has been genetically defined as a negative regulator of genes involved in thiamine metabolism (Schweingruber, A. M., Frankhauser, H., Dlugonski, J., Steinmann-Loss, C., and Schweingruber, M. E. (1992) Genetics 130, 445-449). We have isolated and sequenced the gene and show that it codes for a putative protein of 569 amino acids which exhibits, in its carboxyl-terminal half, good homology to Saccharomyces cerevisiae thiamine pyrophosphokinase (TPK). tnr3 mutants have reduced levels of intracellular thiamine diphosphate, show impaired TPK activity, which is enhanced by introducing the tnr3 wild type gene on a plasmid, and can be complemented by the S. cerevisiae TPK-encoding gene TH180. These data strongly suggest that tnr3 encodes S. pombe TPK. We present evidence that TPK also acts as a negative regulator for gene pho1, which is derepressed when cells are starved for phosphate and show that in contrast to wild type cells, tnr3 mutants mate constitutively in response to thiamine, indicating that TPK is also involved in regulation of mating. Disruption of the tnr3 gene is lethal, and a tnr3 mutant expressing only residual TPK activity grows slowly and shows aberrant morphology.