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Journal of Bacteriology, December 1998, p. 6276-6282, Vol. 180, No. 23
Laboratoire de Microbiologie et
Génétique Moléculaire, Centre National de la
Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Toulouse, France
Received 8 June 1998/Accepted 11 September 1998
There has been increased interest in bacterial polyadenylation with
the recent demonstration that 3' poly(A) tails are involved in RNA
degradation. Poly(A) polymerase I (PAP I) of Escherichia coli is a member of the nucleotidyltransferase (Ntr) family that includes the functionally related tRNA CCA-adding enzymes. Thirty members of the Ntr family were detected in a search of the current database of eubacterial genomic sequences. Gram-negative organisms from
the
0021-9193/98/$04.00+0
Copyright © 1998, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.
The Bacillus subtilis
Nucleotidyltransferase Is a tRNA CCA-Adding Enzyme
and
subdivisions of the purple bacteria have two genes
encoding putative Ntr proteins, and it was possible to predict their
activities as either PAP or CCA adding by sequence comparisons with the
E. coli homologues. Prediction of the functions of proteins encoded by the genes from more distantly related bacteria was not
reliable. The Bacillus subtilis papS gene encodes a protein that was predicted to have PAP activity. We have overexpressed and
characterized this protein, demonstrating that it is a tRNA nucleotidyltransferase. We suggest that the papS gene
should be renamed cca, following the notation for its
E. coli counterpart. The available evidence indicates that
cca is the only gene encoding an Ntr protein, despite
previous suggestions that B. subtilis has a PAP similar to
E. coli PAP I. Thus, the activity involved in RNA 3'
polyadenylation in the gram-positive bacteria apparently resides in an
enzyme distinct from its counterpart in gram-negative bacteria.
*
Corresponding author. Mailing address: Laboratoire de
Microbiologie et Génétique Moléculaire, CNRS, UPR
9007, 118, route de Narbonne, 31062 Toulouse Cedex, France. Phone:
(33.5) 61.33.58.94. Fax: (33.5) 61.33.58.86. E-mail:
Carpousi{at}ibcg.biotoul.fr.
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