Molecular analysis of the Neurospora qa-1 regulatory region indicates that two interacting genes control qa gene expression.

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Abstract
The qa-1 regulatory region controls the expression of the 3 structural genes required for the early reactions in quinic acid catabolism in N. crassa. Genetic analysis previously identified two types of noninducible qa-1 mutants, qa-1S and qa-1F, which mapped in separate nonoverlapping regions. These mutations were originally interpreted as defining separate domains of a single regulatory protein. This communication describes the further genetic and physical characterization of the qa-1 regulatory region. Using both Neurospora transformation and DNA .cntdot. RNA hybridization, the qa-1 region consists of 2 distinct genes corresponding to the 2 original mutational types qa-1s and qa-1F. The analysis of the mRNA species hybridizing to these regions indicates that the qa-1F genes encodes a 2.9-kilobase (kb) mRNA, while the qa-1S gene encodes related 4.1-kb and 3.4-kb mRNA. The transcriptional regulation of one of these genes, qa-1S, was examined. Evidence is presented that the qa-1S gene is induced by quinic acid and is also subject to apparent autogenous regulation as well as to control by the qa-1F gene product. Based on these results and earlier genetic analysis, the hypothesis is proposed that 1 of the 2 qa regulatory genes encodes a repressor protein (qa-1S), and the other encodes an activator protein (qa-1F), both of which control qa gene expression.

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