Cloning and nucleotide sequence of the alcohol acetyltransferase II gene (ATF2) from Saccharomyces cerevisiae Kyokai No. 7.

The ATF2 gene, which encodes alcohol acetyltransferase II (AATase II), was cloned from Saccharomyces cerevisiae Kyokai No. 7 (sake yeast). The ATF2 gene coded for a protein of 535 amino acid residues with a calculated molecular mass of 61,909 daltons. The deduced amino acid sequences of the ATF2 showed 36.9% similarity with that of ATF1, which encodes AATase I. The hydrophobicity profiles for the Atf2 protein and Atf1 protein were similar. A transformant carrying multiple copies of the ATF2 gene had 2.5-fold greater AATase activity than the control, and this activity was not significantly inhibited by linoleic acid. A Southern analysis of the yeast genomes in which the ATF2 gene was used as a probe showed that S. cerevisiae and brewery larger yeast have one ATF2 gene, while S. bayanus has no similar gene.