Identification of a ubiG-like gene involved in ubiquinone biosynthesis from Chlamydophila pneumoniae AR39.
OBJECTIVE
To investigate if one hypothetical protein from Chlamydophila pneumoniae AR39 exerts UbiG-like function by complementary experiments.


RESULTS
Proteins UbiG have a signature S-adenosylmethionine-binding motif compared with other methyltransferases. Probing with the conserved motif, one hypothetical protein from C. pneumoniae AR39 was proposed to be a UbiG-like protein. The protein encoding the gene was used to swap its counterpart in Escherichia coli, and its expression in resultant strain DYCG was confirmed by RT-PCR. Strain DYCG grew on succinate as a carbon source, and rescued ubiquinone content in vivo, while the ubiG deletion strain DYK did not.


CONCLUSIONS
Results indicate that the putative protein from C. pneumoniae exerts a UbiG-like function involved in ubiquinone biosynthesis.


CONCLUSIONS
Identification of the ubiG-like gene will facilitate research on ubiquinone biosynthesis and aerobic respiration in the genus Chlamydophila owing to the important function of ubiquinone in vivo.
Liu
J
J
Murad Research Institute for Modernized Chinese Medicine, Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Shanghai, China. junliu1995@yahoo.com.cn
Zhang
X
X
Liu
Jianhua
J
D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D001426:Bacterial Proteins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D016993:Chlamydophila pneumoniae / Q000201:enzymology* / Q000235:genetics / Q000254:growth & development; D004926:Escherichia coli / Q000201:enzymology / Q000235:genetics / Q000254:growth & development; D005798:Genes, Bacterial; D005816:Genetic Complementation Test; D006801:Humans; D008780:Methyltransferases / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D011995:Recombination, Genetic; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction; D012436:S-Adenosylmethionine / Q000378:metabolism*; D014451:Ubiquinone / Q000096:biosynthesis*
D001426:Bacterial Proteins; D014451:Ubiquinone; D012436:S-Adenosylmethionine; D008780:Methyltransferases