Regulation of Pyrimidine Biosynthesis in Saccharomyces cerevisiae

Abstract

Biochemical steps of the pyrimidine pathway were found to be the same in yeast as in bacteria, and all except one step have been characterized. The activities of the first 2 enzymes, carbamoyl phosphate synthetase and aspartic transcarbamylase, are simultaneously controlled by feedback inhibition and repression. Moreover, these enzymes are coded by the same genetic region (ura-2) and seem to form a single enzymatic complex. The enzymes that follow later in the pathway are induced in a sequential way by the intermediary products and are insensitive to pyrimidine repression. The corresponding genes (ura-4, ura-1, ura-3) are not linked to each other or to ura-2, the gene for carbamoyl phosphate synthetase and aspartic transcarbamylase. Mutants that have simultaneously lost feedback inhibition by uridine triphosphate for carbamoyl phosphate synthetase and for aspartic transcarbamylase were found and mapped in the gene ura-2.