A human gene, hSGT1, can substitute for GCR2, which encodes a general regulatory factor of glycolytic gene expression in Saccharomyces cerevisiae.

To determine whether similar regulatory mechanisms control the expression of glycolytic genes in yeast and human cells, we screened a human brain cDNA library for clones which complement the growth defect of the gcr2 mutant of Saccharomyces cerevisiae, and isolated hSGT1 (human suppressor of GCR two). Further work confirmed that the rescue of growth was associated with recovery of glycolytic enzyme activities, and that hSGT1 did not complement the growth defect of a gcr1 mutant. A hybrid protein comprising hSgt1p and the DNA-binding domain of Gal4p (GBD) activated a GAL1-lacZ reporter gene fusion, suggesting that the cloned gene may be a transcriptional activator. Two-hybrid experiments in yeast also indicate that hSgt1p interacts with Gcr1p. Northern analysis showed that hSGT1 is highly expressed in muscle and heart. Although the predicted amino acid sequence of hSgt1p does not display significant similarity to Gcr2p, we speculate that their functions may be analogous.