A. Dzikowska et al., Cloning, characterisation and regulation of the ornithine transaminase (otaA) gene of Aspergillus nidulans, CURR GENET, 35(2), 1999, pp. 118-126
The ornithine transaminase (otaA) gene of Aspergillus nidulans has been clo
ned by transformation of the A. nidulans pro(-)ota(-) mutant strain with a
cosmid gene library. The otaA gene contains two introns and potentially cod
es for a 453-aa-long protein. The deduced amino-acid sequence is homologous
to known ornithine transaminases from Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Plasmodium
falciparum, Vigna aconitifolia, rat, mouse and man, particularly in the py
ridoxal phosphate-binding domain. The expression of the otaA gene is specif
ically induced by arginine, and is also under the control of nitrogen-metab
olite and carbon-catabolite repression. Regulation of the gene occurs at bo
th transcriptional and post-transcriptional levels. The promoter region of
otaA contains putative AREA and CREA binding-sites. Fusion proteins contain
ing AREA or CREA DNA-binding domains bind some of these sites. CREA binding
-sites correspond very well to the CREA-binding consensus sequence which is
SYGGRG. AREA binding-sites are composed of GATT sequences which are not ty
pical binding sites for the GATA - binding family of transcription factors.