The Saccharomyces cerevisiae CLN3 protein, a G1 cyclin, positively regulates the expression of CLN1 and CLN2, two additional G1 cyclins whose expression during late G1 is activated, in part, by the tr Show more
The Saccharomyces cerevisiae CLN3 protein, a G1 cyclin, positively regulates the expression of CLN1 and CLN2, two additional G1 cyclins whose expression during late G1 is activated, in part, by the transcription factors SWI4 and SWI6. We isolated 12 complementation groups of mutants that require CLN3. The members of one of these complementation groups have mutations in the BCK2 gene. In a wild-type CLN3 genetic background, bck2 mutants have a normal growth rate but have a larger cell size, are more sensitive to alpha-factor, and have a modest defect in the accumulation of CLN1 and CLN2 RNA. In the absence of CLN3, bck2 mutations cause an extremely slow growth rate: the cells accumulate in late G1 with very low levels of CLN1 and CLN2 RNA. The slow growth rate and long G1 delay of bck2 cln3 mutants are cured by heterologous expression of CLN2. Moreover, overexpression of BCK2 induces very high levels of CLN1, CLN2, and HCS26 RNAs. The results suggest that BCK2 and CLN3 provide parallel activation pathways for the expression of CLN1 and CLN2 during late G1. Show less
The Saccharomyces cerevisiae SIS2 gene was identified by its ability, when present on a high copy number plasmid, to increase dramatically the growth rate of sit4 mutants. SIT4 encodes a type 2A-relat Show more
The Saccharomyces cerevisiae SIS2 gene was identified by its ability, when present on a high copy number plasmid, to increase dramatically the growth rate of sit4 mutants. SIT4 encodes a type 2A-related protein phosphatase that is required in late G1 for normal G1 cyclin expression and for bud initiation. Overexpression of SIS2, which contains an extremely acidic carboxyl terminal region, stimulated the rate of CLN1, CLN2, SWI4 and CLB5 expression in sit4 mutants. Also, overexpression of SIS2 in a CLN1 cln2 cln3 strain stimulated the growth rate and the rate of CLN1 and CLB5 RNA accumulation during late G1. The SIS2 protein fractionated with nuclei and was released from the nuclear fraction by treatment with either DNase I or micrococcal nuclease, but not by RNase A. This result, combined with the finding that overexpression of SIS2 is extremely to a strain containing lower than normal levels of histones H2A and H2B, suggests that SIS2 might function to stimulate transcription via an interaction with chromatin. Show less