Identification of amdX, a new Cys-2-His-2 (C2H2) zinc-finger gene involved in the regulation of the amdS gene of Aspergillus nidulans

Abstract

The acetamidase-encoding amdS gene of Aspergillius nidulans has been shown to be controlled by multiple regulatory genes, A new gene, amdX, involved in amdS regulation was identified during the characterization of a translocation affecting amdS control. The amdX gene is predicted to encode a 1150-amino-acid polypeptide which contains two Cys-2-His-2 (C2H2) zinc finger DNA-binding motifs. Insertional inactivation of amdX and the phenotypes of transformants containing multiple copies of the amdX gene show that it is an activator of amdS expression. A fusion protein containing the AmdX zinc fingers was found to bind to sequences in the 5' region of amdS which overlap binding sites for the CreA ..