# Mechanism of Yeast Transcriptional Regulators

> **NIH NIH R01** · UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN FRANCISCO · 2024 · $491,739

## 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:** 10878612
- **Project number:** 2R01GM037049-37
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN FRANCISCO
- **Principal Investigator:** ALEXANDER D JOHNSON
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2024
- **Award amount:** $491,739
- **Award type:** 2
- **Project period:** 1986-08-01 → 2025-08-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10878612

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10878612, Mechanism of Yeast Transcriptional Regulators (2R01GM037049-37). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-25 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10878612. Licensed CC0.

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