Abstract
The psbE and psbF genes encode the apoproteins of cytochrome b 559, an essential component of the pigment protein complex photosystem II. Together with psbL and psbJ, these genes constitute a single operon in all photosynthetic organisms examined thus far. We have cloned and sequenced the psbE and psbF genes of the Chlamydomonas reinhardtii plastid genome. The predicted amino-terminal domains of both polypeptides are more basic than those of other organisms, and the sequence of the psbE gene product indicates a departure from the ‘positive-inside’ rule for the insertion of proteins in the thylakoid membrane. Northern blot analysis demonstrated that psbE is transcribed into a 0.3 kb mRNA, while transcription of psbF and psbL genes results in a 0.9 kb transcript. The splitting of the psbEFLJ operon into separate transcription units suggests a unique mechanism of regulation of expression of these genes in C. reinhardtii.
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Communicated by R. G. Herrmann
A preliminary report of this work was presented at the Fourth International Plant Molecular Biology Congress, Amsterdam, 1994. While this work was in progress, cloning and sequencing of the psbE and psbF genes from C. reinhardtii were initiated independently by J. Barber and coworkers (personal communication)
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Mor, T.S., Ohad, I., Hirschberg, J. et al. An unusual organization of the genes encoding cytochrome b 559 in Chlamydomonas reinhardtii: psbE and psbF genes are separately transcribed from different regions of the plastid chromosome. Molec. Gen. Genet. 246, 600–604 (1995). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00298966
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00298966