title: Three Arabidopsis genes encoding proteins with differential activities for cysteine synthase and beta-cyanoalanine synthase.
abstract: Three cDNA clones encoding putative cysteine synthases (O-acetylserine (thiol) lyase, EC 4.2.99.8) were isolated from Arabidopsis thaliana and designated AtcysC1, AtcysD1 and AtcysD2, respectively. Southern blot analyses suggested that the corresponding genes were present as a single copy, or at most two copies, in the A. thaliana genome. Escherichia coli complementation analyses confirmed that the cDNAs encode cysteine synthase and the corresponding proteins produced in E. coli clearly showed cysteine synthase activity. In addition, AtcysC1 protein showed beta-cyanoalanine synthase (EC 4.4.1.9) activity, but the other two did not. Kinetic analysis suggests that AtcysC1 actually functions as beta-cyanoalanine synthase rather than cysteine synthase in vivo. The mRNA accumulation of AtcysC1, AtcysD1 and AtcysD2 differed in various organs, but did not change markedly when A. thaliana seedlings were subjected to various stresses, including nutrient deprivation. In vivo targeting experiments indicated that AtcysD1 and AtcysD2 are cytoplasmic isozymes, and AtcysC1 is a mitochondrial isozyme.
authors.affiliation: Research and Education Center for Genetic Information, Nara Institute of Science and Technology, Ikoma, Japan.
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Yamaguchi
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Nakamura
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Kusano
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Sano
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D017360:Arabidopsis / Q000235:genetics*; D002451:Cell Compartmentation; D003001:Cloning, Molecular; D003547:Cysteine Synthase / Q000235:genetics* / Q000302:isolation & purification; D018076:DNA, Complementary / Q000235:genetics; D004926:Escherichia coli / Q000235:genetics; D019143:Evolution, Molecular; D017343:Genes, Plant; D005816:Genetic Complementation Test; D018745:Genome, Plant; D008190:Lyases / Q000235:genetics* / Q000302:isolation & purification; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010802:Phylogeny; D011993:Recombinant Fusion Proteins / Q000302:isolation & purification; D017386:Sequence Homology, Amino Acid
chemical_list: D018076:DNA, Complementary; D011993:Recombinant Fusion Proteins; D003547:Cysteine Synthase; D008190:Lyases; C019955:beta-cyanoalanine synthase