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Journal of Bacteriology, September 2005, p. 5927-5936, Vol. 187, No. 17
0021-9193/05/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/JB.187.17.5927-5936.2005
Copyright © 2005, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

A Phylogeny of Bacterial RNA Nucleotidyltransferases: Bacillus halodurans Contains Two tRNA Nucleotidyltransferases

Patricia Bralley, Samantha A. Chang, and George H. Jones*

Department of Biology, Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia 30322

Received 4 March 2005/ Accepted 1 June 2005

We have analyzed the distribution of RNA nucleotidyltransferases from the family that includes poly(A) polymerases (PAP) and tRNA nucleotidyltransferases (TNT) in 43 bacterial species. Genes of several bacterial species encode only one member of the nucleotidyltransferase superfamily (NTSF), and if that protein functions as a TNT, those organisms may not contain a poly(A) polymerase I like that of Escherichia coli. The genomes of several of the species examined encode more than one member of the nucleotidyltransferase superfamily. The function of some of those proteins is known, but in most cases no biochemical activity has been assigned to the NTSF. The NTSF protein sequences were used to construct an unrooted phylogenetic tree. To learn more about the function of the NTSFs in species whose genomes encode more than one, we have examined Bacillus halodurans. We have demonstrated that B. halodurans adds poly(A) tails to the 3' ends of RNAs in vivo. We have shown that the genes for both of the NTSFs encoded by the B. halodurans genome are transcribed in vivo. We have cloned, overexpressed, and purified the two NTSFs and have shown that neither functions as poly(A) polymerase in vitro. Rather, the two proteins function as tRNA nucleotidyltransferases, and our data suggest that, like some of the deep branching bacterial species previously studied by others, B. halodurans possesses separate CC- and A-adding tRNA nucleotidyltransferases. These observations raise the interesting question of the identity of the enzyme responsible for RNA polyadenylation in Bacillus.

* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Department of Biology, Emory University, Atlanta, GA 30322. Phone: (404) 727-0712. Fax: (404) 727-2880. E-mail: gjones{at}biology.emory.edu.

Journal of Bacteriology, September 2005, p. 5927-5936, Vol. 187, No. 17
0021-9193/05/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/JB.187.17.5927-5936.2005
Copyright © 2005, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.



This article has been cited by other articles:

  • Bralley, P., Cozad, M., Jones, G. H. (2009). Geobacter sulfurreducens Contains Separate C- and A-Adding tRNA Nucleotidyltransferases and a Poly(A) Polymerase. J. Bacteriol. 191: 109-114 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
  • Just, A., Butter, F., Trenkmann, M., Heitkam, T., Morl, M., Betat, H. (2008). A comparative analysis of two conserved motifs in bacterial poly(A) polymerase and CCA-adding enzyme. Nucleic Acids Res 36: 5212-5220 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
  • Neuenfeldt, A., Just, A., Betat, H., Morl, M. (2008). Evolution of tRNA nucleotidyltransferases: A small deletion generated CC-adding enzymes. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 105: 7953-7958 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
  • Cho, H. D., Verlinde, C. L. M. J., Weiner, A. M. (2007). Reengineering CCA-adding enzymes to function as (U,G)- or dCdCdA-adding enzymes or poly(C,A) and poly(U,G) polymerases. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 104: 54-59 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
  • Bralley, P., Gust, B., Chang, S., Chater, K. F., Jones, G. H. (2006). RNA 3'-tail synthesis in Streptomyces: in vitro and in vivo activities of RNase PH, the SCO3896 gene product and polynucleotide phosphorylase.. Microbiology 152: 627-636 [Abstract] [Full Text]  


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