title: Functional characterization of a gene encoding a dual domain for uridine kinase and uracil phosphoribosyltransferase in Arabidopsis thaliana.
abstract: Uridine kinase (UK) and uracil phosphoribosyltransferase (UPRT) are enzymes catalyzing the formation of uridine 5'-monophosphate (UMP) from uridine and adenine 5'-triphosphate (ATP) and from uracil and phosphoribosyl-alpha-l-pyrophosphate (PRPP), respectively, in the pyrimidine salvage pathway. Here, we report the characterization and functional analysis of a gene AtUK/UPRT1 from Arabidopsis thaliana. Sequencing of an expressed sequence tag clone of this gene revealed that it contains a full-length open reading frame of 1461 nucleotides and encodes a protein with a molecular mass of approximately 53 kDa. The sequence analysis revealed that the N-terminal region of AtUK/UPRT1 contains a UK domain and the C-terminal region consists of a UPRT domain. Expression of AtUK/UPRT1 in upp and upp-udk mutants of Escherichia coli supplied with 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) and 5-fluorouridine (5-FD) led to growth inhibition. Identical results were obtained with 5-FD and 5-FU treatments when the UK and UPRT domains were separated by the introduction of translation initiation and stop codons prior to complementation into the upp-udk and upp mutants. These results suggest that the AtUK/UPRT1 product can use uracil and uridine as substrates for the production of UMP. We also investigated the function of AtUK/UPRT1 in an Arabidopsis mutant. The wild-type Arabidopsis plants showed drastic growth retardation when they were treated with 5-FU and 5-FD while the growth of atuk/uprtl mutant plants was not significantly affected. These findings confirm that AtUK/UPRT1 has a dual role in coding for both uridine kinase and uracil phosphoribosyltransferase that form UMP through the pyrimidine salvage pathway in Arabidopsis.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biological Sciences, Seoul National University, Seoul 151-742, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: M Rafiqul
authors.initials: MR
authors.lastname: Islam
authors.forename: Hoyeun
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: Shin-Wook
authors.initials: SW
authors.lastname: Kang
authors.forename: Jung-Sup
authors.initials: JS
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: Young-Min
authors.initials: YM
authors.lastname: Jeong
authors.forename: Hyun-Ju
authors.initials: HJ
authors.lastname: Hwang
authors.forename: So-Young
authors.initials: SY
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: Je-Chang
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Woo
authors.forename: Sang-Gu
authors.initials: SG
authors.lastname: Kim
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D017360:Arabidopsis / Q000201:enzymology* / Q000235:genetics*; D029681:Arabidopsis Proteins / Q000235:genetics; D001483:Base Sequence; D017931:DNA Primers; D018744:DNA, Plant / Q000235:genetics; D004926:Escherichia coli / Q000235:genetics; D020224:Expressed Sequence Tags; D017930:Genes, Reporter; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010430:Pentosyltransferases / Q000235:genetics*; D016415:Sequence Alignment; D014162:Transfection; D014541:Uridine Kinase / Q000235:genetics*
chemical_list: D029681:Arabidopsis Proteins; D017931:DNA Primers; D018744:DNA, Plant; D010430:Pentosyltransferases; C023269:uracil phosphoribosyltransferase; D014541:Uridine Kinase