title: Alternative topogenic signals in peroxisomal citrate synthase of Saccharomyces cerevisiae.
abstract: The tripeptide serine-lysine-leucine (SKL) occurs at the carboxyl terminus of many peroxisomal proteins and serves as a peroxisomal targeting signal. Saccharomyces cerevisiae has two isozymes of citrate synthase. The peroxisomal form, encoded by CIT2, terminates in SKL, while the mitochondrial form, encoded by CIT1, begins with an amino-terminal mitochondrial signal sequence and ends in SKN. We analyzed the importance of SKL as a topogenic signal for citrate synthase, using oleate to induce peroxisomes and density gradients to fractionate organelles. Our experiments revealed that SKL was necessary for directing citrate synthase to peroxisomes. C-terminal SKL was also sufficient to target a leaderless version of mitochondrial citrate synthase to peroxisomes. Deleting this tripeptide from the CIT2 protein caused peroxisomal citrate synthase to be missorted to mitochondria. These experiments suggest that the CIT2 protein contains a cryptic mitochondrial targeting signal.
authors.affiliation: Department of Immunology and Medical Microbiology, College of Medicine, University of Florida, Gainesville 32601.
authors.forename: K K
authors.initials: KK
authors.lastname: Singh
authors.forename: G M
authors.initials: GM
authors.lastname: Small
authors.forename: A S
authors.initials: AS
authors.lastname: Lewin
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D002950:Citrate (si)-Synthase / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D008830:Microbodies / Q000201:enzymology*; D008928:Mitochondria / Q000201:enzymology; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D012441:Saccharomyces cerevisiae / Q000201:enzymology* / Q000254:growth & development; D015398:Signal Transduction
chemical_list: D002950:Citrate (si)-Synthase