Cloning and Nucleotide Sequence of the Alcohol Acetyltransferase II Gene (ATF2) fromSaccharomyces cerevisiaeKyokai No. 7

The ATF2 gene, which encodes alcohol acetyltransferase II (AATase II), was cloned from Saccharomyces cerevisiae Kyokai No. 7 (sake yeast). The ATF2 gene coded for a protein of 535 amino acid residues with a calculated molecular mass of 61,909 daltons. The deduced amino acid sequences of the ATF2 showed 36.9% similarity with that of ATF1, which encodes AATase I. The hydrophobicity profiles for the Atf2 protein and Atf1 protein were similar. A transformant carrying multiple copies of the ATF2 gene had 2.5-fold greater AATase activity than the control, and this activity was not significantly inhibited by linoleic acid. A Southern analysis of the yeast genomes in which the ATF2 gene was used as a probe showed that S. cerevisiae and brewery larger yeast have one ATF2 gene, while S. bayanus has no similar gene.