title: Cloning and sequence analysis of ornithine decarboxylase gene fragments from the Ascomycota.
abstract: Ornithine decarboxylase (ODC; EC 4.1.1.17) catalyzes the initial step in the biosynthesis of polyamines, the conversion of ornithine to putrescine. Based on the most conserved regions of fungal ODCs, we designed and synthesized oligonucleotides to amplify homologous fragments of three important plant pathogenic Pyrenomycete fungi (Ascomycota), Magnaporthe grisea, Colletotrichum lindemuthianum and Fusarium solani, and one insect pathogenic fungus Metarhizium anisopliae. Cloning and sequencing of the amplified fragments revealed homologies of between 37 to 88% with other fungal ODCs. The predicted peptide sequences were compared by Clustal analysis and conserved sequences corresponding to the substrate and cofactor binding sites were identified. Comparative analyses of the ODC fragments isolated in this study, revealed high homology between them (68.3-81.1%) and also with other Pyrenomycetes such as Neurospora crassa (order Sordariales; 68.6-72.9%) and Fusarium graminearum (order Hypocreales; 70.8-88.1%). Data obtained in this work revealed that these fungi constitute a compact group separated from other eukaryotic ODCs.
authors.affiliation: División de Biología Molecular, Instituto Potosino de Investigación Científica y Tecnológica, Camino a la Presa de San José 2055, Apartado Postal 3-74 Tangamanga, 78210 San Luís Potosí, San Luís Potosí, Mexico. jbremont@ipicyt.edu.mx
authors.forename: Juan Francisco
authors.initials: JF
authors.lastname: Jiménez-Bremont
authors.forename: Margarita
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Rodríguez-Kessler
authors.forename: Raul
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Rodríguez-Guerra
authors.forename: Carlos
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Cortes-Penagos
authors.forename: Juan Carlos
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Torres-Guzman
authors.forename: June Simpson
authors.initials: JS
authors.lastname: Williamson
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D001203:Ascomycota / Q000201:enzymology* / Q000235:genetics; D001483:Base Sequence; D001665:Binding Sites; D003001:Cloning, Molecular; D017124:Conserved Sequence; D005656:Fungal Proteins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics*; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009955:Ornithine Decarboxylase / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics*; D010802:Phylogeny; D016415:Sequence Alignment; D017421:Sequence Analysis; D017385:Sequence Homology
chemical_list: D005656:Fungal Proteins; D009955:Ornithine Decarboxylase