The DNA polymerase gene from the hyperthermophilic marine archaebacterium, Pyrococcus furiosus, shows sequence homology with α-like DNA polymerases

• Published in: Nucleic acids research 1991-12, Vol.19 (24), p.6952-6952
• Main Authors: MATHUR, E. J, ADAMS, M. W. W, CALLEN, W. N, CLINE, J. M
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Amino Acid Sequence; Archaea - enzymology; Archaea - genetics; Biological and medical sciences; DNA Polymerase II - genetics; DNA-Directed DNA Polymerase - genetics; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Genes. Genome; Molecular and cellular biology; Molecular genetics; Molecular Sequence Data; Pyrococcus furiosus; Sequence Alignment; Sequence Homology, Nucleic Acid
• ISSN: 0305-1048; 1362-4962
• DOI: 10.1093/nar/19.24.6952

Recent studies in the evolutionary relationships of life on this planet have placed the root of the universal tree between eubacteria (or Bacteria) on the one hand and archaebacteria (or Archaea) and eukaryotes (or Eucarya) on the other. The latter two Urkingdoms are therefore thought to have a common ancestor. Support for such a conclusion comes from molecular comparisons of rRNAs, tRNAs, RNA polymerases and elongation factors. Of significance is the fact that the most ancient phenotype of the archaebacterial-eukaryotic lineage is also the most thermophilic. Thus, the extremely thermophilic archaebacteria are considered to have a life strategy closely related to the ancestor of all extant life. To date sequence information has been limited to one hyperthermophilic enzyme, and this was not analyzed in phylogenetic terms. We describe the first amino acid sequence information from an archaebacterial DNA polymerase gene and its striking homology to alpha -like DNA polymerases.