The NDT80 gene of budding yeast encodes Ndt80, a transcription factor involved in progression through meiosis. The gene is the DNA information; Ndt80 is the resulting regulatory protein. Keeping these distinct makes an intervention precise: deleting the NDT80 gene changes production of Ndt80, whereas measuring Ndt80 binding tests a property of the protein.
The original 1995 characterization found that NDT80 gene mutants arrested at pachytene with persistent synaptonemal complexes.[ref]
NDT80, a meiosis-specific gene required for exit from pachytene in Saccharomyces cerevisiae by L. Xu and others. Abstract; null and point mutants
Subsequent experiments showed that Ndt80 bound upstream DNA and activated transcription of genes involved in meiotic division and reproductive cell formation.[ref]Gametogenesis in yeast is regulated by a transcriptional cascade dependent on Ndt80 by S. Chu and others. Abstract; ectopic expression and conserved upstream sequence binding
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