FUNCTIONAL-ANALYSIS OF THE STRESS-RESPONSE ELEMENT AND ITS ROLE IN THE MULTISTRESS RESPONSE OF SACCHAROMYCES-CEREVISIAE

The DDR2 gene of Saccharomyces cerevisiae is a multistress response ge ne whose transcription is rapidly and strongly induced by a diverse ar ray of xenobiotic agents, and environmental and physiological conditio ns. The multistress response of this gene requires the pentanucleotide , 5'CCCCT, (C4T; STress Response Element)) and the zinc-finger transcr iption factors, Msn2p and Msn4p. A 51bp oligonucleotide (oligo 31/32) containing two STREs from the DDR2 promoter region was previously show n to direct heat shock activation of a lacZ reporter gene. In this wor k we demonstrate that the same element conferred a complete multistres s response to an E. coli galK: reporter gene introduced into yeast cel ls. A variant oligonucleotide in which both the STRE spacing and neigh boring sequences were altered responded to the same spectrum of stress es, while substitution of nucleotides within the pentanucleotide compl etely abolished the multistress response. These results directly demon strate that STREs are not only necessary but are sufficient for mediat ing a transcriptional response to a surprisingly diverse set of enviro nmental and physiological conditions. (C) 1998 Academic Press.