Isolation and analysis of the Neurospora crassa Cyt-21 gene. A nuclear gene encoding a mitochondrial ribosomal protein

• Published in: The Journal of biological chemistry 1988-02, Vol.263 (6), p.2840-2847
• Main Authors: Kuiper, M T, Akins, R A, Holtrop, M, de Vries, H, Lambowitz, A M
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Amino Acid Sequence; ANALISIS; ANALYSE; ANALYSIS; Base Sequence; Biological and medical sciences; Biotechnology; CHAMPIGNON; DNA Restriction Enzymes - metabolism; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; FUNGI; GENE; GENES; Genes, Fungal; Genes. Genome; Genetic engineering; Genetic technics; Methods. Procedures. Technologies; MITOCHONDRIA; Mitochondria - analysis; MITOCHONDRIE; MITOCONDRIA; Molecular and cellular biology; Molecular genetics; Molecular Sequence Data; Mutation; Neurospora - genetics; Neurospora crassa; Neurospora crassa - genetics; Nucleic Acid Hybridization; NUCLEOTIDE; NUCLEOTIDES; NUCLEOTIDOS; PROTEINAS; PROTEINE; PROTEINS; Ribosomal Proteins - genetics; RIBOSOMAS; RIBOSOME; RIBOSOMES; Transcription, Genetic; Vectors (cloning, transfer, expression). Insertion sequences and transposons
• ISSN: 0021-9258; 1083-351X
• DOI: 10.1016/s0021-9258(18)69145-8

The Neurospora crassa nuclear mutant cyt-21-1 (originally 297-24; Pittenger, T.H., and West, D.J. (1979) Genetics 93, 539-555) has a defect leading to gross deficiency of mitochondrial small ribosomal subunits. Here, we have cloned the cyt-21+ gene from a N. crassa genomic library, using the sib selection procedure (Akins, R. A., and Lambowitz, A. M. (1985) Mol. Cell Biol. 5, 2272-2278). The genomic clone contains a short split gene encoding a basic protein of 107 amino acid residues. This protein shows strong homology to Escherichia coli ribosomal protein S-16. Comparison of mutant and wild-type mitochondrial ribosomal proteins (Kuiper, M. T. R., Holtrop, M., Vennema, H., Lambowitz, A. M., and de Vries, H. (1988) J. Biol. Chem. 263, 2848-2852) indicates that the cyt-21 gene encodes N. crassa mitochondrial ribosomal protein S-24. The expression of the cyt-21+ gene is regulated such that the level of the putative cyt-21+ mRNA is increased about 5-fold when mitochondrial protein synthesis is inhibited. We suggest that this reflects part of a general mechanism for coordinately activating Neurospora nuclear genes that encode mitochondrial constituents in response to impaired mitochondrial function. This is the first report of the cloning and characterization of a mitochondrial ribosomal protein gene from N. crassa.