Evidence that peptide deformylase and methionyl-tRNA(fMet) formyltransferase are encoded within the same operon in Escherichia coli.
Overexpression of the fms gene, the first translation unit of a dicistronic operon that also encodes methionyl-tRNA(fMet) formyltransferase in Escherichia coli, sustains the overproduction of peptide deformylase activity in crude extracts. This suggests that the fms gene encodes the peptide deformylase. Moreover, the fms gene product has a motif characteristic of metalloproteases, an activity compatible with deformylase. The corresponding protein could be purified to homogeneity. However, its enzymatic activity could not be retained during the purification procedure. As could be expected from the occurrence in its amino acid sequence of a zinc-binding motif characteristic of metallopeptidases, the purified fms product displayed one tightly bound zinc atom.
Meinnel
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Laboratoire de Biochimie, Unité de Recherche Associée, no. 240 du Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Ecole Polytechnique, Palaiseau, France.
Blanquet
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D000217:Acyltransferases / Q000235:genetics*; D000581:Amidohydrolases; D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000626:Aminopeptidases / Q000235:genetics* / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D004926:Escherichia coli / Q000235:genetics*; D015964:Gene Expression Regulation, Bacterial; D019877:Hydroxymethyl and Formyl Transferases; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009876:Operon / Q000235:genetics*; D010957:Plasmids / Q000235:genetics; D017386:Sequence Homology, Amino Acid; D015032:Zinc / Q000378:metabolism
D019877:Hydroxymethyl and Formyl Transferases; C021561:methionyl-tRNA formyltransferase; D000217:Acyltransferases; D000626:Aminopeptidases; D000581:Amidohydrolases; C084507:peptide deformylase; D015032:Zinc