Distinct roles for TUP1 and CYC8 in the regulation of gene transcription in yeast

The Tup1-Cyc8 complex in Saccharomyces cerevisiae was one of the first global co-repressors of gene transcription discovered. The model for Tup1-Cyc8 function proposes that Tup1p mediates the repression activity, whilst Cyc8p recruits the complex to target genes. However, despite years of study, a full understanding of the contribution of Tup1p and Cyc8p to complex function is lacking. We examined TUP1 and CYC8 single and double deletion mutants and show that CYC8 represses more genes than TUP1, and there are genes subject to (i) unique repression by TUP1 or CYC8, (ii) redundant repression by TUP1 and CYC8, and (iii) there are genes at which de-repression in a cyc8 mutant is dependent upon TUP1, and vice-versa. We also reveal that Tup1p and Cyc8p can make distinct contributions to commonly repressed genes possibly via specific interactions with histone deacetylases. Furthermore, we show that Tup1p and Cyc8p can be found independently of each other to negatively regulate gene transcription and can persist at active genes to negatively regulate on-going transcription. Together, these data suggest that Tup1p and Cyc8p can associate with inactive and active genes to mediate distinct negative and positive regulatory roles when functioning within, and possibly out with the complex. We carried out RNA-Seq analysis to compare the transcriptomes of the tup1 and cyc8 single mutants and the tup1 cyc8 double mutant strain, to wt. Three replicate RNA samples are included for each strain.