Rap1 and Abf1 DNA-binding ts mutants and wild type after 1 hr at 37 C

Abf1 and Rap1 are General Regulatory Factors that contribute to transcriptional activation of a large number of genes, as well as to replication, silencing, and telomere structure in yeast. In spite of their widespread roles in transcription, the scope of their functional targets genome-wide has not been previously determined. We have used microarrays to examine the contribution of these essential GRFs to transcription genome-wide, by using ts mutants that dissociate from their binding sites at 37 C. We combined this data with published ChIP-chip studies and motif analysis to identify probable direct targets for Abf1 and Rap1. We also identified a substantial number of genes likely to bind Rap1 or Abf1, but not affected by loss of GRF binding. Interestingly, the results strongly suggest that Rap1 can contribute to gene activation from farther upstream than can Abf1. Also, consistent with previous work, more genes that bind Abf1 are unaffected by loss of binding than those that bind Rap1. Finally, we showed for several such genes that the Abf1 C-terminal region, which contains the putative activation domain, is not needed to confer this peculiar "memory effect" that allows continued transcription after loss of Abf1 binding. Keywords: Genetic modification (ts mutant versus wild type) Three replicates each of rap1 ts and abf1 ts yeast were grown at 25 C and shifted to 37 C, along with matched wild type controls, prior to RNA isolation. The ts mutants lose DNA binding at 37 C.