The complete sequencing of the genome of Saccharomyces cerevisiae indicated that this organism contains five genes encoding aldehyde dehydrogenases. YOR374w and YER073w correspond to the mitochondrial isoforms and we propose as gene names ALD4 and ALD5, respectively. YPL061w has been described as the cytoplasmic constitutive isoform and named ALD6. We characterize here the tandem-repeated ORFs YMR170c and YMR169c as the cytoplasmic stress-inducible isoforms, with gene names ALD2 and ALD3, respectively. The expression of ALD2 and ALD3 is dependent on the general-stress transcription factors Msn2,4 but independent of the HOG MAP kinase pathway. ALD3 is induced by a variety of stresses, including osmotic shock, heat shock, glucose exhaustion, oxidative stress and drugs. ALD2 is only induced by osmotic stress and glucose exhaustion. A double null mutant, ald2 ald3, exhibited unchanged sensitivity to any of the above stresses. The only phenotype detected in this mutant was a reduced growth rate in ethanol medium as compared to the wild type.

Copyright 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.