title: Cloning and expression in Escherichia coli of the gene encoding Aspergillus flavus urate oxidase.
abstract: Amino acid sequencing of peptides obtained after proteolytic hydrolysis of Aspergillus flavus urate oxidase (uricase) permitted the design of oligodeoxynucleotide probes that were used to obtain 1.2- and 5-kilobase pair DNA fragments from A. flavus cDNA and genomic libraries, respectively. The cDNA fragment contained the entire coding region for uricase, and comparison with the genomic fragment revealed the presence of two short introns in the coding region of the gene. A. flavus uricase has around 40% overall identity with uricases from higher organisms but with many conserved amino acids. Hitherto highly conserved consensus patterns found in other uricases were found to be modified in the A. flavus enzyme, notably the sequence Val-Leu-Lys-Thr-Thr-Gln-Ser near position 150, which in the filamentous fungus is uniquely modified to Val-Leu-Lys-Ser-Thr-Asn-Ser. Silent mutations were introduced by cassette mutagenesis near the 5'-extremity of the coding sequence in order to conform with Escherichia coli codon usage, and the uricase was expressed in the E. coli cytoplasm in a completely soluble, biologically active form.
authors.affiliation: Sanofi Elf BioRecherches, Labège, France.
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Legoux
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Delpech
authors.forename: X
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Dumont
authors.forename: J C
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Guillemot
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Ramond
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Shire
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Caput
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Ferrara
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Loison
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D001231:Aspergillus flavus / Q000201:enzymology*; D001483:Base Sequence; D002851:Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid; D003001:Cloning, Molecular; D004247:DNA / Q000235:genetics; D004591:Electrophoresis, Polyacrylamide Gel; D004926:Escherichia coli / Q000235:genetics*; D015870:Gene Expression; D005798:Genes, Bacterial; D005822:Genetic Vectors; D006868:Hydrolysis; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D016415:Sequence Alignment; D014503:Urate Oxidase / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D004247:DNA; D014503:Urate Oxidase