Abstract
The Saccharomyces cerevisiae MGA2 gene encodes a protein that is an important regulator of lipid metabolism in the cell. Mga2p plays a major role in unsaturated fatty acid production through its regulation of the transcription and mRNA stability of OLE1, whose product is the Δ‐9 fatty acid desaturase. We have found that mga2Δ strains also contain elevated relative amounts of squalene, a sterol pathway intermediate, when compared to wild‐type cells. A possible explanation for the higher squalene levels detected in mga2Δ cells is lower expression of the ERG1 gene. ERG1 encodes squalene epoxidase, which catalyzes the conversion of squalene to squalene epoxide. To explore whether MGA2 plays a role in regulating ERG1 expression, we first examined effects on ERG1 transcription using a promoter‐lacZ reporter gene. We report here that in addition to MGA2's role in regulation of unsaturated fatty acids, MGA2 is required for full basal expression of ERG1. In contrast to OLE1, we found that ERG1 expression was not repressed by unsaturated fatty acids. However, ERG1 expression was elevated in response to miconazole, an inhibitor of sterol synthesis in yeast
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