title: Dictyostelium discoideum essential myosin light chain: gene structure and characterization.
abstract: We have used a Dictyostelium essential myosin light chain (EMLC) cDNA clone to isolate additional cDNA clones which supply a different 3' sequence from that previously described. The revised cDNA sequence encodes a polypeptide of 150 amino acids. Amino acid residues 147-167 of the previously reported sequence are replaced by new residues 147 to 150. The new cDNA encodes a polypeptide with 66% amino acid sequence identity with the Physarum polycephalum EMLC, and approximately 30% identity with mammalian EMLC sequences. These new cDNA clones were used to isolate two genomic DNA fragments which contain the entire EMLC gene. The Dictyostelium EMLC gene contains a single intron located immediately 3' of the translation initiation codon and encodes a product most similar to MLC3 isoform of vertebrates. Primer extension analysis places the transcription initiation site approximately 90 nucleotides upstream of the translation initiation site. A DNA fragment containing 350 bases of sequence upstream of the putative transcription initiation site is sufficient to drive expression of a reporter gene upon reintroduction into growing Dictyostelium cells. In addition, the CAT reporter mRNA produced by this construct showed a pattern of developmental regulation similar to that previously reported for the endogenous EMLC mRNA. Based on comparison with published EMLC sequences from a variety of sources, the Dictyostelium EMLC shows slightly higher similarity to vertebrate EMLCs from striated muscle sources than nonmuscle sources. While Dictyostelium and human nonmuscle sequences display only 28% identity over their entire sequence, the region from residue 88 to 108 shows much higher identity (67%). The high evolutionary conservation of this region of the EMLC suggests it may play an important role in EMLC function, and as such, represents a good target for future mutagenesis studies.
authors.affiliation: Department of Cell, Molecular and Structural Biology, Northwestern University Medical School, Chicago, IL 60611.
authors.forename: R S
authors.initials: RS
authors.lastname: Pollenz
authors.forename: R L
authors.initials: RL
authors.lastname: Chisholm
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D001483:Base Sequence; D004247:DNA / Q000235:genetics; D004023:Dictyostelium / Q000235:genetics*; D005796:Genes; D007438:Introns; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009218:Myosins / Q000235:genetics*; D011401:Promoter Regions, Genetic; D012689:Sequence Homology, Nucleic Acid; D013045:Species Specificity
chemical_list: D004247:DNA; D009218:Myosins