• Korean Journal of Microbiology
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.16-24
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• 1991

The yeast gene THR1 encodes the homoserine kinase (EC 2.7.1.39: HKase) which catalyses the first step of the threonine specific arm at the end of the common pathway for methionine and threonine biosynthesis. A recombinant plasmid pMC3 (12.6 kilobase pairs, vector YCp50) has been cloned into E. coli HB101 from a yeast genomic library through its complementing activity of a thr1 mutation in a yeast recipient strain M39-1D. When subcloned into pMC32 (8.6kbp, vector YRp7) and pMC35 (8.3 kbp, vector YIp5), the HindIII fragment (2.7 kbp) of pMC3 insery was positive in the thrI complementing activity in both yeast and E. coli auxotrophic strains. The linearized pMC35 was introduced into the original recipient yeast strain and the mitotically stable chromosomal integrant was identified among the transformants. Through the tetrad analysis, the integration site of the pMC35 was localized to the region of THR1 structural gene at an expected genetic distance of approximately 11.1 cM from the ARG4 locus on the right arm of the yeast chromosome VIII. When episomically introduced into the auxotrophic cells and cultured in Thr omission liquid medium, the cloned gene overexpressed the HKase in the order of thirteen to fifteenfold, as compared with a wildtype. HKase levels are repressed by addition of threonine at the amount of 300 mg/l and 1, 190 mg/l for pMC32 and pMC3, respectively. Data from genetic analysis and HKase response thus support that the cloned HindIII yeast DNA fragment contains the yeast thr1 structural gene, along with necessary regulatory components for control of its proper expression.