Functional domains in the Mig1 repressor

Abstract

Mig1 is a zinc finger protein that mediates glucose repression in the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae. It is related to the mammalian Krox/Egr, Wilms' tumor, and Sp1 proteins and binds to a GC-rich motif that resembles the GC boxes recognized by these proteins. We have performed deletion mapping in order to identify functional domains in Mig1. We found that a small C-terminal domain comprising the last 24 amino acids mediates Mig1-dependent repression of a reporter gene. This effector domain contains several leucine-proline dipeptide repeats. We further found that inhibition of Mig1 activity in the absence of glucose is mediated by two internal elements in the Mig1 protein. A Mig1-VP16 hybrid activator was used to further investigate how Mig1 is regulated. Mig1-VP16 can activate transcription from promoters containing Mig1-binding sites and suppresses the inability of Snf1-deficient cells to grow on certain carbon sources. We found that a deletion of the SNF1 gene increases the activity of Mig1-VP16 fivefold under derepressing conditions but not in the presence of glucose. This shows that the hybrid activator is under negative control by the Snf1 protein kinase. Deletion mapping within Mig1-VP16 revealed that regulation of its activity by Snf1 is conferred by the same internal elements in the Mig1 sequence that mediate inhibition of Mig1 activity in the absence of glucose.