Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
Pivot Concepts:   Target Concepts:
Query: EC:2.7.7.6 (RNA polymerase)
 34,946 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Astasia longa is a colourless heterotrophic flagellate closely related to the photoautotrophic Euglena gracilis. A circular 73 kb plastid DNA (ptDNA) has been isolated from A. longa that is about half the size of the chloroplast DNA of E. gracilis (143 kb). We have determined the complete sequence of the ptDNA of A. longa and established a complete gene map. All chloroplast genes for photosynthesis-related proteins are completely absent from the A. longa plastid DNA except for rbcL, the gene for the ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase large subunit. Identified genes encode components of the plastid transcriptional and translational machinery: genes for three subunits of a chloroplast RNA polymerase, 20 chloroplast ribosomal protein genes, a gene for a plastid elongation factor Tu, 27 plastidic tRNA genes and three tandemly arranged repeats of 16S, 23S and 5S rDNA. Transcripts of a number of genes were detected by Northern hybridisation. The ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase large subunit protein has been identified by immunoblotting.
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PMID:Complete gene map of the plastid genome of the nonphotosynthetic euglenoid flagellate Astasia longa. 1121 95

When the sequence of the Euglena gracilis chloroplast genome was reported in 1993 the alpha-subunit gene (rpoA) of RNA polymerase appeared to be missing, based on a comparison of all putative reading frames to the then known rpoA loci. Since there has been a large increase in known rpoA sequences, the question of a Euglena chloroplast rpoA gene was re-examined. A previously described unknown reading frame of 161 codons was found to be part of an rpoA gene split by a single group III intron. This rpoA gene, which is highly variable from species to species, was then isolated and characterized in five other euglenoid species, Euglena anabaena, Euglena granulata, Euglena myxocylindracea, Euglena stellata and Euglena viridis, and in the Astasia longa plastid genome. All seven Euglena rpoA genes have either one or three group III introns. The rpoA gene products in Euglena spp. appear to be the most variable in this gene family when compared to the rpoA gene in other species of bacteria, algae and plants. Additionally, Euglena rpoA proteins lack a C-terminal domain required for interaction with some regulatory proteins, a feature shared only with some chlorophyte green algae. The E.gracilis rpoA gene is the distal cistron of a multigene cluster that includes genes for carbohydrate biosynthesis, photosynthetic electron transport, an antenna complex and ribosomal proteins. This study provides new insights into the transcription system of euglenoid plastids, the organization of the plastid genome, group III intron evolution and euglenoid phylogeny.
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PMID:Identification and comparative analysis of the chloroplast alpha-subunit gene of DNA-dependent RNA polymerase from seven Euglena species. 1186 18