ATP synthase from bovine mitochondria: complementary DNA sequence of the mitochondrial import precursor of the .gamma.-subunit and the genomic sequence of the mature protein

Abstract

The gamma-subunit of mitochondrial ATP synthase is part of the extrinsic membrane sector of the enzyme F1-ATPase. It is a nuclear gene product. Complementary DNA clones encoding a precursor of the protein have been isolated from a bovine library. The initial partial clone was identified with a mixture of 32 synthetic oligonucleotides designed from the known protein sequence (Walker et al., 1985), and this isolate was then used to screen the library again in order to find a complete cDNA. The DNA sequence of a clone that encodes the entire mature protein has been established, and the deduced protein sequence agrees exactly with that determined by direct sequence analysis of protein isolated from bovine hearts (Walker et al., 1985). At the 3' ends of two independently isolated clones, alternative polyadenylation sites have been observed; otherwise, the DNA sequences of the clones are concordant. In common with many other mitochondrial proteins encoded in nuclear genes, the deduced protein sequence has an N-terminal extension that is absent from the mature protein. These presequences direct the protein to its appropriate mitochondrial compartment and are removed during the import process. The cDNA clone has been employed to isolate bovine genomic clones containing the gene for the gamma-subunit. From them, the DNA sequence has been established of a region encoding the mature protein and six amino acids in the presequence, but not the remainder of the proposed import sequence. This sequence extends over almost 10 kb and is divided into eight exons. Intron B between exons I and II contains a sequence that is related to long interspersed repetitive elements (LINEs) that have been described in other mammals. Human LINEs are usually flanked by directly repeated sequences with a poly(A) tract at their 3' ends, and these features are present in the bovine LINE which is truncated. This sequence contains an open reading frame encoding part of a protein that is closely related to a protein encoded in mouse LINEs, to reverse transcriptase, and to DNA binding proteins. We have also made a preliminary investigation by DNA hybridization of the number of sequences related to the bovine gene in both the bovine and human genomes. Under the experimental conditions employed, one fragment hybridized in digests of bovine DNA, and two to four bands were detected in digests of human DNA; these latter fragments have originated from either expressed genes or pseudogenes.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)