title: Genomic cloning and characterization of mitochondrial elongation factor Tu (EF-Tu) gene (tufM) from maize (Zea mays L.).
abstract: We have cloned and characterized a mitochondrial elongation factor Tu (EF-Tu) gene (tufM) in maize (Zea mays L.). This maize tufM gene encoded a polypeptide of 452 amino acid residues, consisting of a putative transit peptide of 55 residues and a mature EF-Tu of 397 residues. The coding region was composed of 12 exons and 11 introns that ranged from 76 to 1673bp in length. The deduced amino acid sequence showed 85.9% and 61.2% identity with Arabidopsis mitochondrial EF-Tu and Arabidopsis chloroplast EF-Tu sequence respectively. The transcription initiation site was determined to be 165bp upstream of the AUG initiation codon by primer extension analysis. Southern blot analysis revealed that the cloned EF-Tu gene was encoded by the members of small gene family in maize. Although this gene does not resemble the Arabidopsis nuclear tufA gene, which encodes the plastid EF-Tu, and does not contain sequence elements found in all cyanobacterial and plastid tufA genes, the predicted amino acid sequence includes an N-terminal extension that resembles a mitochondrial targeting sequence, and shares three unique sequence elements with mitochondrial EF-Tu's from Arabidopsis thaliana, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, and Homo sapiens. Therefore, we concluded that this gene encodes the maize mitochondrial EF-Tu.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, Korea University, 136-701, Seoul, South Korea.
authors.forename: K R
authors.initials: KR
authors.lastname: Choi
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Roh
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: W
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Sim
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D001483:Base Sequence; D015139:Blotting, Southern; D003001:Cloning, Molecular; D018744:DNA, Plant / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics* / Q000302:isolation & purification; D017343:Genes, Plant / Q000235:genetics*; D008928:Mitochondria / Q000737:chemistry*; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010444:Peptide Elongation Factor Tu / Q000235:genetics*; D010802:Phylogeny; D011401:Promoter Regions, Genetic; D016415:Sequence Alignment; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA; D017386:Sequence Homology, Amino Acid; D014158:Transcription, Genetic; D003313:Zea mays / Q000235:genetics*
chemical_list: D018744:DNA, Plant; D010444:Peptide Elongation Factor Tu