Regulation of Allantoin Catabolism in Saccharomyces cerevisiae

Transcriptional regulation of allantoin catabolism provides an effective model for studying the integration of two physiological processes at the molecular level: (1) induction of gene expression in response to a specific environmental signal and (2) repression or loss of gene expression in response to availability of readily used nitrogen sources. The latter phenomenon has been termed nitrogen catabolite repression (NCR; Wiame 1971; Cooper 1982a; Wiame et al. 1985). Nearly a decade has passed since the last comprehensive review of the literature describing control of allantoin catabolism in Saccharomyces cerevisiae (Cooper 1982a,b, 1984). The topic has, however, been briefly treated in two more recent works (Wiame et al. 1985; Magasanik 1992). The objective of this chapter is to present an integrated view and analysis of the primary data accumulated since 1982 relative to this regulon and the cis- and trans-acting factors of which it consists. This chapter builds on the reviews published in 1982 and 1984 (Cooper 1982a,b, 1984), and hence is designed to be read in concert with them. The four reviews together yield a comprehensive description of all work published on allantoin regulon in yeast prior to August, 1994.