Functional domains of the transcriptional activator NUC-1 in Neurospora crassa

The NUC-1 regulatory protein directly controls the transcription of genes encoding the phosphorus acquisition enzymes in Neurospora crassa. To understand how NUC-1 regulates the transcription of these genes and how the activity of NUC-1 is modulated by other regulatory proteins, two putative functional domains of NUC-1 were analyzed: the DNA-binding domain and the regulatory domain. The DNA-binding activity of NUC-1 has not been directly demonstrated; however, results of deletion analysis, sequence analysis of the nuc-1 mutant alleles, and strong sequence similarity with the Saccharomyces cerevisiae PHO4 protein strongly suggest that the basic helix-loop-helix motif of NUC-1 forms a DNA-binding domain. Deletion and mutant analyses revealed that 39 amino acid (aa) residues (aa 463 to 501), or fewer, of NUC-1 are interacting with the negative regulatory factor(s), the PREG and/or PGOV proteins.