Summary
A 5.3 kb DNA segment containing the str operon (ca. 4.5 kb) of the cyanobacterium Spirulina platensis has been sequenced. The str operon includes the structural genes rpsL (ribosomal protein S12), rpsG (ribosomal protein S7), fus (translation elngation factor EF-G) and tuf (translation elongation factor EF-Tu). From the nucleotide sequence of this operon, the primary structures of the four gene products have been derived and compared with the available corresponding structures from eubacteria, archaebacteria and chloroplasts. Extensive homologies were found in almost all cases and in the order S12>EF-Tu>EF-G>S7; the largest homologies were generally found between the cyanobacterial proteins and the corresponding chloroplast gene products. Overall codon usage in S. platensis was found to be rather unbiased.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Ciferri O (1981) Spirulina, the edible microorganism. Microbiol Rev 47:551–578
Ciferri O, Tiboni O (1983) The biochemistry and industrial potential of Spirulina. Annu Rev Microbiol 39:503–526
Fromm H, Edelman M, Koller B, Goloubinoff P, Galun E (1986) The enigma of the gene coding for ribosomal protein S12 in the chloroplasts of Nicotiana. Nucleic Acids Res 14:883–898
Funatsu G, Yaguchi M, Wittmann-Liebold B (1977) Primary structure of protein S12 from the small Escherichia coli ribosomal subunit. FEBS Lett 73:12–17
Giese K, Subramanian AR, Larrinua IM, Bogorad L (1987) Nucleotide sequence, promoter analysis, and linkage mapping of the unusually organized operon encoding ribosomal proteins S7 and S12 maize chloroplast. J Biol Chem 262:15251–15255
Giovannoni S, Turner S, Olsen GJ, Barns S, Lane DJ, Pace N (1988) Evolutionary relationships among cyanobacteria and green chloroplasts. J Bacteriol 170:3584–3592
Jurnak F (1985) Structure of the GDP domain of EF-Tu and location of the amino acids homologous to ras oncogene proteins. Science 230:32–36
Kimura M, Kimura J (1987) The complete amino acid sequence of ribosomal protein S12 from Bacillus stearothermophilus. FEBS Lett 210:91–96
Kushiro A, Shimizu M, Tomita K (1987) Molecular cloning and sequence determination of the tuf gene coding for the elongation factor Tu of Thermus thermophilus HB8. Eur J Biochem 170:93–98
La Cour TFM, Nyborg J, Thirup S, Clark BFC (1985) Structural details of the binding of guanosine diphosphate to elongation factor Tu from E. coli as studied by X-ray crystallography. EMBO J 4:2385–2388
Lechner K, Böck A (1987) Cloning and nucleotide sequence of the gene for an archaebacterial protein synthesis elongation factor Tu. Mol Gen Genet 208:523–528
Markmann-Mulisch U, Subramanian AR (1988) Nucleotide sequence of maize chloroplast rps11 with conserved amino acid sequence between eukaryotes, bacteria and plastids. Biochem Int 17:655–664
Möller K, Zwieb C, Brimacombe R (1978) Identification of the oligonucleotide and oligopeptide involved in an RNA-protein cross-linking induced by ultraviolet irradiation of Escherichia coli 30S ribosomal subunits. J Mol Biol 126:489–506
Montandon PE, Stutz E (1983) Nucleotide sequence of a Euglena gracilis chloroplast genome region coding for the elongation factor Tu: evidence for a spliced mRNA. Nucleic Acids Res 11:5877–5892
Montandon PE, Knuchel-Aegerter C, Stutz E (1987) Euglena gracilis chloroplast DNA: the untranslated leader of tufA-ORF206 gene contains in intron. Nucleic Acids Res 15:7809–7822
Nomura M, Yates JL, Dean D, Post LE (1980) Feedback regulation of ribosomal protein gene expression in Escherichia coli: structural homology between ribosomal RNA and ribosomal protein mRNA. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 77:7084–7088
Ohama T, Yamao F, Muto A, Osawa S (1987) Organization and codon usage of the streptomycin operon in Micrococcus luteus, a bacterium with a high genomic G+C content. J Bacteriol 169:4770–4777
Ohyama K, Fukuzawa H, Kohchi T, Shirai H, Sano T, Sano S, Umesono K, Shiki Y, Takeuchi M, Chang Z, Aota SI, Inokuchi H, Ozeki H (1986) Chloroplast gene organization deduced from complete sequence of liverwort Marchantia polymorpha chloroplast DNA. Plant Mol Biol Rep 4:148–175
Post LE, Nomura M (1980) DNA sequences from the str operon of Escherichia coli. J Biol Chem 255:4660–4666
Reinbolt J, Tritsch D, Wittmann-Liebold B (1978) The primary structure of ribosomal protein S7 from E. coli strains K and B. FEBS Lett 91:297–301
Riccardi G, De Rossi E, Della Valle G, Ciferri O (1985) Cloning of the glutamine synthetase gene from Spirulina platensis. Plant Mol Biol 4:133–136
Ruf M, Kössel H (1988) Occurrence and spacing of ribosome recognition sites in mRNAs of chloroplasts from higher plants. FEBS Lett 240:41–44
Sanger F, Coulson AR, Barrell BG, Smith AJH, Roe BA (1980) Cloning in single-stranded bacteriophage as an aid to rapid DNA sequencing. J Mol Biol 143:161–178
Tiboni O, Di Pasquale G (1987) Organization of genes for ribosomal proteins S7 and S12, elongation factors EF-Tu and EF-G in the cyanobacterium Spirulina platensis. Biochim Biophys Acta 908:113–122
Tiboni O, Di Pasquale G, Ciferri O (1984a) Cloning and expression of the genes for ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase from Spirulina platensis. Biochim Biophys Acta 783:258–264
Tiboni O, Di Pasquale G, Ciferri O (1984b) Two tuf genes in the cyanobacterium Spirulina platensis. J Bacteriol 159:407–409
Torazawa K, Hayashida N, Obokata J, Shinozaki K, Sigiura M (1986) The 5′ part of the gene for the ribosomal protein S12 is located 30 kbp downstream for its 3′ part in tobacco chloroplast genome. Nucleic Acids Res 14:3143
Yokota T, Sugisaki H, Takanami M, Kaziro Y (1980) The nucleotide sequence of the cloned tufA gene of Escherichia coli. Gene 12:25–31
Zengel JM, Archer RH, Lindahl L (1984) The nucleotide sequence of the Escherichia coli fus gene coding for elongation factor G. Nucleic Acids Res 12:2181–2192
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Additional information
Communicated by K. Isono
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Buttarelli, F.R., Calogero, R.A., Tiboni, O. et al. Characterization of the str operon genes from Spirulina platensis and their evolutionary relationship to those of other prokaryotes. Mol Gen Genet 217, 97–104 (1989). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00330947
Received:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00330947