Open AccessReintedness of archaebacterial RNA polymerase core subunits to their eubacterial and eultaryotic equivalents
Author(s) -
Bruno Berghöfer,
Lothar Kröckel,
Chrisliane Körtner,
Mathias Truss,
Jürgen Schallenberg,
Albrecht Klein
Publication year - 1988
Publication title -
nucleic acids research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 9.008
H-Index - 537
eISSN - 1362-4954
pISSN - 0305-1048
DOI - 10.1093/nar/16.16.8113
Subject(s) - biology , rna polymerase , gene , polymerase , genetics , nucleic acid sequence , rna , microbiology and biotechnology
The sequence of the genes encoding the four largest subunits of the RNA polymerase of the archaebacterium Methanobacterium thermoautotrophicum was determined and putative translation signals were identified. The genes are more strongly homologous to eukaryotic than to eubacterial RNA polymerase genes. Analysis of the polypeptide sequences revealed colinearity of two pairs of adjacent archaebacterial genes encoding the B" and B' or A and C genes, respectively, with two eubacterial and two eukaryotic genes each encoding the two largest RNA polymerase subunits. This difference in sequence organization is discussed in terms of gene fusion in the course of evolution. The degree of conservation is much higher between the archaebacterial and the eukaryotic polypeptides than between the archaebacterial and the eubacterial enzyme. Putative functional domains were identified in two of the subunits of the archaebacterial enzyme.