Open AccessMolecular cloning of, and phylogenetic analysis of, an actin in Naegleria fowleri
Author(s) -
Gorospe Suzanne,
Band R. Neal,
Kopachik Will J.
Publication year - 1996
Publication title -
fems microbiology letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.899
H-Index - 151
eISSN - 1574-6968
pISSN - 0378-1097
DOI - 10.1111/j.1574-6968.1996.tb08390.x
Subject(s) - naegleria , biology , phylogenetic tree , entamoeba , genetics , entamoeba histolytica , naegleria fowleri , nucleic acid sequence , gene , protozoa , cloning (programming) , microbiology and biotechnology , virology , computer science , programming language , meningoencephalitis
We cloned and sequenced an intronless actin gene from the amoebo‐flagellate Naegleria fowleri , LEE strain, an opportunistic pathogen of man. Codon usage and third‐position‐codon nucleotide frequency were significantly different from Acanthamoeba , another amoeba genus which also includes opportunistic pathogens of man. Between the two amoebae, actin peptide sequences were 92.8% similar, while nucleotide sequences were only 70% similar. A phylogenetic reconstruction of actin amino acid sequences, using a distance method, placed Naegleria in a cluster with Plasmodium and Entamoeba .