title: Alfalfa (Medicago sativa) carbamoylphosphate synthetase gene structure records the deep lineage of plants.
abstract: Given the central role of carbamoylphosphate synthetases in pyrimidine and arginine metabolism in all living organisms, the absence of fundamental information regarding plant CPSase genes is a striking omission [Lawson et al., Mol. Biol. Evol. 13 (1996) 970-977; van den Hoff et al., J. Mol. Evol. 41 (1995) 813-832]. Whereas CPSase gene architecture and aa sequence have proven to be useful characters in establishing ancient and modern genetic affinities, phylogenetic analysis cannot be completed without the inclusion of plant CPSases. We describe the first isolation by molecular cloning of a plant CPSase gene (CPAII) derived from alfalfa (Medicago sativa). DNA sequence analysis reveals a proteobacterial architecture, namely closely linked carA and carB coding domains separated by a short intergenic region, and transcribed as a polycistronic mRNA. CPAII encodes the amino acid residues that typify a CPSase type II enzyme. In addition, an ancient internal duplication has been retained in the plant carB sequence. Partial nucleotide sequencing of additional clones reveals that the alfalfa genome contains multiple CPSase II gene copies which may be tissue-specific in their expression. It appears that with respect to CPSase genes, CPAII resembles the carAB gene of bacteria, and may have preserved much of this ancient gene structure in the alfalfa genome.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, University of California, Riverside, CA, USA.
authors.forename: Z
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.forename: A E
authors.initials: AE
authors.lastname: Metcalf
authors.forename: C J
authors.initials: CJ
authors.lastname: Lovatt
authors.forename: B C
authors.initials: BC
authors.lastname: Hyman
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D001483:Base Sequence; D002223:Carbamoyl-Phosphate Synthase (Glutamine-Hydrolyzing) / Q000235:genetics*; D018744:DNA, Plant / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification; D015971:Gene Expression Regulation, Enzymologic; D018506:Gene Expression Regulation, Plant; D017343:Genes, Plant / Q000235:genetics*; D000455:Medicago sativa / Q000201:enzymology / Q000235:genetics*; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D005810:Multigene Family; D016366:Open Reading Frames; D010802:Phylogeny; D012333:RNA, Messenger / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA; D017386:Sequence Homology, Amino Acid; D012689:Sequence Homology, Nucleic Acid
chemical_list: D018744:DNA, Plant; D012333:RNA, Messenger; D002223:Carbamoyl-Phosphate Synthase (Glutamine-Hydrolyzing)