Mitochondrial F1F0 ATP synthases purified from dicotyledonous plants contain six different subunits named alpha, beta, gamma, delta, delta', and epsilon. Our previous N-terminal amino acid sequence analyses indicated that the gamma- and epsilon-subunits of the sweet potato mitochondrial F1 correspond to the gamma- and epsilon-subunits of animal mitochondrial F1, respectively (Kimura, T., Nakamura, K., Kajiura, H., Hattori, H., Nelson, N., and Asahi, T. (1989) J. Biol. Chem. 264, 3183-3186). A cDNA clone for the gamma-subunit of the sweet potato mitochondrial F1 was identified by oligonucleotide hybridization selection of a cDNA library, and a cDNA clone for the epsilon-subunit was isolated by reverse polymerase chain reaction and hybridization selection of a cDNA library by the polymerase chain reaction product. The 1.4-kilobase long cDNA for the gamma-subunit contained a 978-base pair open reading frame coding for a precursor for the gamma-subunit. The mature gamma-subunit is composed of 281 amino acids, and its sequence showed significantly higher similarities with the gamma-subunit of animal mitochondrial F1 and bacterial F1 compared with the gamma-subunit of chloroplast CF1 from plants. The precursor for the gamma-subunit contained N-terminal presequence of 45 amino acid residues. By contrast, the 0.46-kilobase long cDNA for the epsilon-subunit contained a coding sequence of 207-base pairs for the mature epsilon-subunit of 69 amino acid residues that is preceded by an ATG codon suggesting that the epsilon-subunit is synthesized without the cleavable presequence for mitochondrial import. The amino acid sequence of the epsilon-subunit of sweet potato mitochondrial F1 showed similarities of 25 and 36% amino acid positional identity with the epsilon-subunits of mitochondrial F1 from yeast and bovine, respectively.

• PMID: 8349605
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Journal Article | Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

Authors

Morikami A, Ehara G, Yuuki K, Nakamura K

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