Gene for the diphtheria toxin-susceptible elongation factor 2 from Methanococcus vannielii.
Protein synthesis elongation factor 2 (EF-2) from all archaebacteria so far analysed, is susceptible to inactivation by diphtheria toxin, a property which it shares with EF-2 from the eukaryotic 8OS translation system. To resolve the structural basis of diphtheria toxin susceptibility, the structural gene for the EF-2 from an archaebacterium, Methanococcus vannielii, was cloned and its nucleotide sequence determined. It was found that (i) this gene is closely linked to that coding for elongation factor 1 alpha-(EF-1 alpha), (ii) the size of the gene product, as derived from the nucleotide sequence, lies between those for EF-2 from eukaryotes and eubacteria, (iii) it displays a higher sequence similarity to eukaryotic EF-2 than to eubacterial homologues, and (iv) the histidine residue which is modified to diphthamide and then ADP-ribosylated by diphtheria toxin is present in a sequence context similar to that of eukaryotic EF-2 but it is not conserved in eubacterial EF-G. The EF-2 gene from Methanococcus is expressed in transformed Saccharomyces cerevisiae but is not ADP-ribosylated by diphtheria toxin. This indicates that the Saccharomyces enzyme system is unable to post-translationally convert the respective histidine residue from the Methanococcus EF-2 into diphthamide.
Lechner
K
K
Lehrstuhl für Mikrobiologie, Universität München, FRG.
Heller
G
G
Böck
A
A
D000246:Adenosine Diphosphate Ribose / Q000378:metabolism; D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D001483:Base Sequence; D006224:Cricetinae; D004167:Diphtheria Toxin / Q000494:pharmacology; D004352:Drug Resistance, Microbial; D019605:Euryarchaeota / Q000235:genetics*; D005798:Genes, Bacterial / Q000187:drug effects; D008040:Genetic Linkage; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010444:Peptide Elongation Factor Tu / Q000235:genetics*; D012689:Sequence Homology, Nucleic Acid
D004167:Diphtheria Toxin; D000246:Adenosine Diphosphate Ribose; D010444:Peptide Elongation Factor Tu