microbiology, Vol 141, 163-169, Copyright © 1995 by Society for General Microbiology
Characterization of the murF gene of the cyanobacterium Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803
MP Malakhov, DA Los, H Wada, VE Semenenko and N Murata
Department of Regulation Biology, National Institute for Basic Biology, Okazaki, Japan.
The murF gene encodes UDP-N-acetylmuramoyl-L-alanyl-D-glutamyl-meso-2,
6-diaminopimeloyl-D-Ala-D-Ala synthetase (EC 6.3.2.15), which catalyses the
final step in the synthesis of UDP-N-acetylmuramoyl-pentapeptide, the
precursor of murein. An open reading frame identified as the murF gene was
found in the genome of the cyanobacterium Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803. The
murF gene encodes a polypeptide of 454 amino acid residues with a predicted
molecular mass of 48 kDa. The murF gene is present as a single-copy gene in
the genome of Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803. The amino acid sequence deduced
from the murF gene is 39% identical to that of the product of the murF gene
of Escherichia coli. The cyanobacterial murF gene complemented a
temperature-sensitive mutation in a murF-deficient strain of E. coli,
restoring the mutant's ability to synthesize a cell wall and to survive at
high sublethal temperatures.
