Multiple genes coding for precursors of rhodotorucine A, a farnesyl peptide mating pheromone of the basidiomycetous yeast Rhodosporidium toruloides.

Haploid cells of mating type A of the basidiomycetous yeast Rhodosporidium toruloides secrete a mating pheromone, rhodotorucine A, which is an undecapeptide containing S-farnesyl cysteine at its carboxy terminus. To analyze the processing and secretion pathway of rhodotorucine A, we isolated both genomic and complementary DNAs encoding the peptide moiety. We identified three distinct genes, RHA1, RHA2, and RHA3, encoding four, five, and three copies of the pheromone peptide, respectively. Complementary DNA clones were classified into two types. One type was homologous to RHA1, and the other type was homologous to RHA2. Transcription start sites were identified by primer extension and S1 nuclease protection, from which the site of the initiator methionine was verified. A primary precursor of rhodotorucine A was detected as a 7-kilodalton protein by immunoprecipitation of in vitro translation products. On the basis of these results, we propose similar three-precursor structures of rhodotorucine A, each containing the amino-terminal peptide sequence Met-Val-Ala. The precursors contain three, four, or five tandem repeats of the pheromone peptide, each separated by a spacer peptide, Thr-Val-Ser(Ala)-Lys, and each precursor has the carboxy-terminal sequence Thr-Val-Ala. This structure suggests that primary precursors of rhodotorucine A do not contain canonical signal sequences.