Regulation of the Manganese-containing Superoxide Dismutase Gene from Fission Yeast

The manganese superoxide dismutase (MnSOD) is a mitochondrial enzyme that dismutates a potentially toxic superoxide radical into hydrogen peroxide and dioxygen. To study the regulation of the Schizosac-charomyces pombe MnSOD gene, the 943 bp upstream region was fused into the promoterless b-galactosidase gene of the shuttle vector YEp357, which resulted in the fusion plasmid pMS14. Restriction mapping and nucleotide sequencing confirmed its construction. The synthesis of b-galactosidase from the fusion plasmid was induced by aluminum chloride, menadione, cad-mium chloride, manganese chloride, and hydrogen peroxide. It was also induced by NO-generating S-nitroso-N-acetylpenicillamine (SNAP). However, cu-pric chloride and zinc chloride did not affect the syn-thesis of b-galactosidase from the fusion plasmid. The b-galactosidase synthesis appeared to be independent of the Pap1 protein. These results suggest that some metals, oxidative stress, and nitric oxide regulate the S. pombe MnSOD gene. KCI Citation Count: 7