1. Characterization of an Escherichia coli elaC deletion mutant
- Author
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Nicole Rittner, Andreas Vogel, Simon Doig, Wolfram Meyer-Klaucke, Thomas Franz, Oliver Schilling, Sigrid Weichert, Simon C. Andrews, Sabine Schmidt, Sabrina Rüggeberg, Vladimir Benes, and Michael Baum
- Subjects
Protein family ,Molecular Sequence Data ,Biophysics ,TRNA processing ,Bacillus subtilis ,Biology ,medicine.disease_cause ,Biochemistry ,Gene Expression Regulation, Enzymologic ,Species Specificity ,Escherichia coli ,medicine ,Amino Acid Sequence ,Molecular Biology ,Gene ,Peptide sequence ,Genetics ,Mutation ,Sequence Homology, Amino Acid ,Phosphoric Diester Hydrolases ,Gene Expression Regulation, Bacterial ,Cell Biology ,biology.organism_classification ,Molecular biology ,Transfer RNA ,Mutagenesis, Site-Directed ,Gene Deletion - Abstract
The elaC gene of Escherichia coli encodes a binuclear zinc phosphodiesterase (ZiPD). ZiPD homologs from various species act as3' tRNA processing endoribonucleases, and although the homologous gene in Bacillus subtilis is essential for viability [EMBO J. 22(2003) 4534], the physiological function of E. coli ZiPD has remained enigmatic. In order to investigate the function of E. coli ZiPDwe generated and characterized an E. coli elaC deletion mutant. Surprisingly, the E. coli elaC deletion mutant was viable and had wild-type like growth properties. Microarray-based transcriptional analysis indicated expression of the E. coli elaC gene at basal levels during aerobic growth. The elaC gene deletion had no effect on the expression of genes coding for RNases or amino-acyl tRNA synthetases or any other gene among a total of > 1300 genes probed. 2D-PAGE analysis showed that the elaC mutation, like-wise, had no effect on the proteome. These results strengthen doubts about the involvement of E. coli ZiPD in tRNA maturation and suggest functional diversity within the ZiPD/ElaC1 protein family. In addition to these unexpected features of the E. coli elaC deletion mutant, a sequence comparison of ZiPD (ElaC1) proteins revealed specific regions for either enterobacterial or mammalian ZiPD (ElaC1) proteins.
- Published
- 2004
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