title: Borrowed proteins in bacterial bioluminescence.
abstract: A library of Photobacterium phosphoreum DNA was screened in lambda 2001 for the lumazine protein gene, using two degenerate 17-mer oligonucleotide probes that were deduced from a partial protein primary sequence. The lumazine protein gene was localized to a 3.4-kilobase BamHI/EcoRI fragment in one clone. The fragment contained an open reading frame, encoding a 189-residue protein, that had a predicted amino acid sequence that concurred with the partial sequence determined for lumazine protein. Considerable sequence similarity was detected between lumazine protein, the yellow fluorescence protein from Vibrio fischeri, and the alpha subunit of riboflavin synthetase (EC 2.5.1.9). A highly conserved sequence in lumazine protein corresponds to the proposed lumazine binding sites in the alpha subunit of riboflavin synthetase. Several secondary structure programs predict the conformation of this site in lumazine protein to be a beta-sheet. A minimal model with three interactions between the ligand and this beta-sheet structure is proposed, which is consistent with the results of NMR and ligand binding studies.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biochemistry, University of Georgia, Athens 30602.
authors.forename: D J
authors.initials: DJ
authors.lastname: O'Kane
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Woodward
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: D C
authors.initials: DC
authors.lastname: Prasher
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D001426:Bacterial Proteins / Q000235:genetics; D001483:Base Sequence; D002352:Carrier Proteins / Q000235:genetics*; D005798:Genes, Bacterial; D008163:Luminescent Measurements; D008164:Luminescent Proteins; D008958:Models, Molecular; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010776:Photobacterium / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D011487:Protein Conformation; D015183:Restriction Mapping; D012689:Sequence Homology, Nucleic Acid
chemical_list: D001426:Bacterial Proteins; D002352:Carrier Proteins; D008164:Luminescent Proteins; C026648:lumazine protein, Photobacterium