Abstract
Microarray analysis of the transcriptome of fission yeast after genetic perturbation of 6 genes known to have a role in sexual differentiation reveals insights into the regulatory principles controlling the gene expression program driving this process.
Highlights
Changes in gene expression are hallmarks of cellular differentiation
We have previously classified the genes that are up-regulated at least fourfold into four major clusters, which represent successive expression waves coinciding with the main biological events of the differentiation process: genes induced in response to environmental changes, early genes, middle genes, and late genes [4]
The forkhead-family protein Mei4p controls the expression of several middle genes [13,14,15], and the basic leucine zipper transcription factors Atf21p and Atf31p control a subset of late genes [4]
Summary
We used DNA microarrays to investigate meiotic gene regulation by examining transcriptomes after genetic perturbations (gene deletion and/or overexpression) of rep, mei, atf and atf, which encode known transcription factors controlling sexual differentiation. This analysis reveals target genes at a genome-wide scale and uncovers combinatorial control by Atf21p and Atf31p. We studied two transcription factors not previously implicated in sexual differentiation whose meiotic induction depended on Mei4p: Rsv2p induces stress-related genes during spore formation, while Rsv1p represses glucose-metabolism genes. Our data further reveal negative feedback interactions: both Rep1p and Mei4p activate specific gene expression waves (early and middle genes, respectively) but are required for repression of genes induced in the previous waves (Ste11p-dependent and early genes, respectively)
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