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Two yeast forkhead genes regulate the cell cycle and pseudohyphal growth

Nature volume 406, pages 90–94 (2000)Cite this article

Abstract

There are about 800 genes in Saccharomyces cerevisiae whose transcription is cell-cycle regulated1,2. Some of these form clusters of co-regulated genes1. The ‘CLB2’ cluster contains 33 genes whose transcription peaks early in mitosis, including CLB1, CLB2, SWI5, ACE2, CDC5, CDC20 and other genes important for mitosis1. Here we find that the genes in this cluster lose their cell cycle regulation in a mutant that lacks two forkhead transcription factors, Fkh1 and Fkh2. Fkh2 protein is associated with the promoters of CLB2, SWI5 and other genes of the cluster. These results indicate that Fkh proteins are transcription factors for the CLB2 cluster. The fkh1 fkh2 mutant also displays aberrant regulation of the ‘SIC1’ cluster1, whose member genes are expressed in the M–G1 interval and are involved in mitotic exit. This aberrant regulation may be due to aberrant expression of the transcription factors Swi5 and Ace2, which are members of the CLB2 cluster and controllers of the SIC1 cluster. Thus, a cascade of transcription factors operates late in the cell cycle. Finally, the fkh1 fkh2 mutant displays a constitutive pseudohyphal morphology, indicating that Fkh1 and Fkh2 may help control the switch to this mode of growth.

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Figure 1: The Fkh1 binding site.
Figure 2: Regulation of SWI5 during the cell cycle is lost in an fkh1 fkh2 mutant.
Figure 3: Microarray analysis of fkh1 fkh2 mutants.
Figure 4: Fkh2 is at the promoters of SWI5, CLB2 and YJL051w , but not at EGT2 or SIC1.
Figure 5: Phenotype of Δfkh1Δfkh2 cells.

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Acknowledgements

We thank G. Fink for strains and H. Wijnen for reading the manuscript. This work was supported by grants from the NIH to T.D., D.B., P.B. and B.F.

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Author notes

  1. Gefeng Zhu

    Present address: Department of Immunology, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota, 55906, USA

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biochemistry, University of Washington, Seattle, 98195-7350 , Washington, USA

    Gefeng Zhu & Trisha N. Davis

  2. Department of Genetics, Stanford University Medical Centre, Stanford, 94306-5120, California, USA

    Paul T. Spellman & David Botstein

  3. Graduate Program in Genetics, State University of New York, Stony Brook, 11794-5215, New York, USA

    Tom Volpe

  4. Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, Cold Spring Harbor, 11724, New York, USA

    Tom Volpe & Bruce Futcher

  5. Department of Biochemistry, Stanford University Medical Centre, Stanford, 94306-5428, California, USA

    Patrick O. Brown

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Correspondence to Bruce Futcher.

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Zhu, G., Spellman, P., Volpe, T. et al. Two yeast forkhead genes regulate the cell cycle and pseudohyphal growth . Nature 406, 90–94 (2000). https://doi.org/10.1038/35017581

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