C‐terminal truncation of the transcriptional activator encoded by area in Aspergillus nidulans results in both loss‐of‐function and gain‐of‐function phenotypes

The solution structure of a fungal AREA protein-DNA complex: an alternative binding mode for the basic carboxyl tail of GATA factors 1 1Edited by P. E. Wright

“…Truncation studies of the C terminus of the AREA protein suggest that the C-terminal limit required for retention of some function coincides with Asn60 or Arg61 of the AREA DBD (Stankovich et al, 1993;Platt et al, 1996b). The structural results agree with these ®ndings and demonstrate that Arg61 is the last amino acid of the 66-residue AREA DBD to interact with the DNA (Figure 2).…”

“…AREA affinity for GATA A 66 amino acid construct encompassing the AREA DBD ( Figure 1B) was chosen for NMR studies based on sequence alignments with mammalian GATA DBDs ( Figure 1A) and deletion studies which indicated that Arg61 is the last residue required for AREA activity (Stankovich et al, 1993;Platt et al, 1996b). The accompanying 13 bp target site ( Figure 1C) was selected to contain the CGA-TAG binding site identi®ed as critical for regulation of uric acid-xanthine permease expression in vivo (Gor®nkiel et al, 1993;Ravagnani et al, 1997).…”

Regulation of secreted protein production by filamentous fungi: recent developments and perspectives

“…Both proteins share a common structure and contain a DNA-binding domain with a single Cys,His, zinc finger which binds to specific upstream sequences . AREA function has recently been investigated by truncating the C-terminal region which lies outside the DNA-binding domain (Stankovich et al, 1993). In this study, one particularly large deletion affected the activation of genes under AREA control in markedly different ways, indicating that this region can have different roles depending on the gene under control.…”

“…In this study, one particularly large deletion affected the activation of genes under AREA control in markedly different ways, indicating that this region can have different roles depending on the gene under control. A suggested mechanism to explain this unusual behaviour is that AREA interacts at its C-terminus with other transcription factors such as NIRA to effect regulation of gene expression (Stankovich et al, 1993). The presence of overlapping or adjacent sites for AREA, CREA and pathway-specific regulatory proteins, for example, in the amdS and prnB promoters of A .…”

The tamA gene of Aspergillus nidulans contains a putative zinc cluster motif which is not required for gene function

“…The properties of various areA mutants indicate that the transcriptional activation function of the AreA protein is modulated by changes in the nitrogen status of the cells perceived through interactions involving at least the C-terminal regions of the protein (4,30). A number of other genes have been identified as influencing, directly or indirectly, the nitrogen regulatory circuit, including tamA, meaA, meaB, gdhA, sarA, and sarB (7,8,22,23,27).…”