# Mechanism of Yeast Transcriptional Regulators

> **NIH NIH R01** · UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN FRANCISCO · 2023 · $470,138

## Abstract

Project Summary/Abstract
The rewiring of transcriptional circuits over evolutionary time is a major source of biological novelty. This
proposal seeks to determine the detailed molecular mechanisms that underlie transcriptional rewiring using
unicellular yeasts as a model system. The strategy is based on direct experimentation in many different yeast
species in the Saccharomycetaceae lineage, and utilizes genome-wide transcriptional profiling, chromatic
immunoprecipitation, phylogenetic comparisons, and ancestral protein reconstructions. Circuit comparisons
among these yeasts uncover specific examples of transcriptional rewiring, and deeper analyses reveal the
molecular mechanisms by which the wiring changes occurred. Although much rewiring is probably neutral,
some of it appears adaptive: indeed a major mechanism for evolutionary novelty involves rewiring
transcriptional circuitry to allow new expression patterns of existing gene products. Thus, to truly understand
the structures of transcription circuits in modern species, we need to know the mechanisms by which they
rapidly evolve and how these mechanisms lead to and, thereby can account for, modern structures.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10694839
- **Project number:** 5R01GM037049-36
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN FRANCISCO
- **Principal Investigator:** ALEXANDER D JOHNSON
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2023
- **Award amount:** $470,138
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 1986-08-01 → 2024-08-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10694839

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10694839, Mechanism of Yeast Transcriptional Regulators (5R01GM037049-36). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10694839. Licensed CC0.

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