Yeast MIG1 repressor is related to the mammalian early growth response and Wilms' tumour finger proteins.

We have cloned a yeast gene, MIG1, which encodes a C2H2 zinc finger protein involved in glucose repression. The fingers of MIG1 are very similar to those present in the mammalian Egr finger proteins, which are induced during the early growth response, and also to the finger protein encoded by a human gene that is deleted in Wilms' tumour cells. MIG1 protein binds to two sites in the upstream region of SUC2, a yeast gene that is repressed by glucose. The MIG1 sites closely resemble the sequence recognized by the Egr proteins. Thus, finger proteins that are similar in both amino acid sequence and DNA specificity are involved in the response of yeast to glucose, and in the mammalian early growth response.