DNA elements regulating α1-tubulin gene induction during regeneration of eukaryotic flagella

Eukaryotic flagella are complex organelles composed of more than 200 polypeptides. Little is known about the regulatory mechanisms governing synthesis of the flagellar protein subunits and their assembly into this complex organelle. The unicellular green alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii is the premier experimental model system for studying such cellular processes. When acid shocked, C. reinhardtii excises its flagella, rapidly and coordinately activates transcription of a set of flagellar genes, and ultimately regenerates a new flagellar pair. To define functionally the regulatory sequences that govern induction of the set of genes after acid shock, we analyzed the α1-tubulin gene promoter. To simplify transcriptional analysis in vivo, we inserted the selectable marker gent ARG7 on the same plasmid with a tagged α1-tubulin gent and stably introduced it into C. reinhardtii cells. By deletion of various sequences, two promoter regions (- 176 to -122 and -85 to -16) were identified as important for induction of the tagged α1-tubulin gene. Deleting the region between -176 and -122 from the transcription start site resulted in an induction level which was only 45 to 70% of that of the resident gent. Deleting the region upstream of -56 resulted in a complete loss of inducibility without affecting basal expression. The α1-tubulin promoter region from -85 to -16 conferred partial acid shock inducibility to an arylsulfatase (ARS) reporter gene. These results show that induction of the α1-tubulin gene after acid shock is a complex response that requires diverse sequence elements.