title: Identification and characterization of polyubiquitin gene from cDNA library of aspergillus fumigatus.
abstract: Aspergillus fumigatus (Afu) causes allergic and invasive forms of diseases in humans. In order to identify genes relevant for pathogenesis, a total of 235 cDNA clones were randomly selected and sequenced from cDNA library of Afu. One of the partially sequenced cDNA clones was homologous to polyubiquitin. Sequencing of the complete cDNA clone showed an open reading frame of 912 bases. Comparison with genomic sequence of Afu using BlastN program, revealed that polyubiquitin gene comprises of 992 bases and contains one intron of 80 bases. The recombinant expression of fusion protein showed an approximately molecular weight of 43-kDa on SDS-PAGE. The translation product of the cDNA sequence showed four tandem repeats of 76 amino acid residues in a single polyubiquitin protein and showed 100% identity with polyubiquitin protein sequences of S. cerevisiae, N. crassa, C. albicans, S. pombe, and M. grisae. Polyubiquitin gene is known to play important role in a variety of cellular processes and recently have been implicated in fungal pathogenesis. Identification of polyubiquitin gene of Afu has opened up scope to study its role in understanding Aspergillus biology and pathogenesis.
authors.affiliation: Molecular Biochemistry and Diagnostics Division, Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology, Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, Mall Road, 110007 Delhi.
authors.forename: Jata
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Shankar
authors.forename: Taruna
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Madan
authors.forename: Seemi Farhat
authors.initials: SF
authors.lastname: Basir
authors.forename: P Usha
authors.initials: PU
authors.lastname: Sarma
keywords: Aspergillus fumigatus; Polyubiquitin and cDNA