The enzyme S-adenosylmethionine (SAM) synthetase, the Escherichia coli metK gene product, produces SAM, the cell's major methyl donor. We show here that SAM synthetase activity is induced by leucine and repressed by Lrp, the leucine-responsive regulatory protein. When SAM synthetase activity falls below a certain critical threshold, the cells produce long filaments with regularly distributed nu...

This study examined polymorphisms in the dihydrofolate reductase (DHFR) gene of Pneumocystis carinii isolates from 27 patients with P. carinii pneumonia (PCP) in Japan. Four substitution sites with two synonymous and two non-synonymous changes were found. Two synonymous substitutions at nucleotide positions 540 and 312 were identified in one and 13 patients, respectively. Two amino acid substit...

A gene cluster responsible for the biosynthesis of anticancer agent FK228 has been identified, cloned, and partially characterized in Chromobacterium violaceum no. 968. First, a genome-scanning approach was applied to identify three distinctive C. violaceum no. 968 genomic DNA clones that code for portions of nonribosomal peptide synthetase and polyketide synthase. Next, a gene replacement syst...

An extreme thermophilic archaeon, Aeropyrum pernix K1 possesses two possible threonyl-tRNA synthetase genes. Sequence homology analysis of these genes with other species threonyl-tRNA synthetase showed that the shorter gene did not possess motif-2 and motif-3 of catalytic core that were conserved in class II aminoacyl-tRNA synthetases. On the other hand, the longer gene had almost all amino aci...

The sequence of a full-length cDNA coding for human liver S-adenosylmethionine synthetase has been determined. It spans 3217 nucleotides and encodes a protein of 395 amino acid residues, with a calculated molecular mass of 43,647 Da. The structural features deduced from the amino acid sequence show a close similarity to those of the rat liver enzyme. The liver-specific S-adenosylmethionine synt...

The glnA gene encoding glutamine synthetase was cloned from the hyperthermophilic archaeon Pyrococcus sp. strain KOD1, and its nucleotide sequence was determined. The glnA gene was expressed in Escherichia coli ME8459 (glnA mutant strain), and the protein was purified to homogeneity and shown to be functional in a dodecameric from (637,000 Da), exhibiting both transferase and synthetase activit...