Hac1: a novel yeast bZIP protein binding to the CRE motif is a multicopy suppressor for cdc10 mutant of Schizosaccharomyces pombe.

We cloned by phenotypic complementation a novel Saccharomyces cerevisiae's multicopy suppressor of the Schizosaccharomyces pombe cdc10-129 mutant which we call HAC1, an acronym of 'homologous to ATF/CREB 1'. It encodes a bZIP (basic-leucine zipper) protein of 230 amino acids with close homology to the mammalian ATF/CREB transcription factor and gel-retardation assays showed that it binds specifically to the CRE motif. HAC1 is not essential for viability. However, the hac1 disruptant becomes caffeine sensitive, which is suppressed by multicopy expression of the yeast PDE2 (Phosphodiesterase 2) gene. Although the mRNA level of HAC1 is almost constitutive throughout the cell cycle, it fluctuates during meiosis. The upstream region of the HAC1 gene contains a T4C site, a URS (upstream repression sequence) and a TR (T-rich) box-like sequence, which reside upstream of many meiotic genes. These results suggest that HAC1 may also be one of the meiotic genes.