Jx. Xie et al., Sum1 and Hst1 repress middle sporulation-specific gene expression during mitosis in Saccharomyces cerevisiae, EMBO J, 18(22), 1999, pp. 6448-6454
Meiotic development in yeast is characterized by the sequential induction o
f temporally distinct classes of genes. Genes that are induced at the middl
e stages of the pathway share a promoter element, termed the middle sporula
tion element (MSE), which interacts with the Ndt80 transcriptional activato
r. We have found that a subclass of MSEs are strong repressor sites during
mitosis, SUM1 and HST1, genes previously associated with transcriptional si
lencing, are required for MSE-mediated repression. Sum1 binds specifically
in vitro to MSEs that function as strong repressor sites lit vivo. Repressi
on by Sum1 is gene specific and does not extend to neighboring genes, These
results suggest that mechanisms used to silence large regions of chromatin
may also be used to regulate the expression of specific genes during devel
opment. NDT80 is regulated during mitosis by both the Sum1 and Ume6 repress
ors. These results suggest that progression through sporulation may be cont
rolled by the regulated competition between the Sum1 repressor and Ndt80 ac
tivator at key MSEs.