ISOLATION OF A PUTATIVE PROLYL-TRANSFER-RNA SYNTHETASE (CAPRS) GENE FROM CANDIDA-ALBICANS

We have isolated a 4.0-kb fragment from a genomic library of Candida a lbicans which contained two open reading frames (ORFs). One of them is homologous to a prolyl-tRNA synthetase that catalyses the charging of a specific tRNA by proline (CaPRS). A deduced sequence of 575 amino a cids representing a polypeptide of 66.2 kDa was determined. A FASTA se arch indicated that the CaPRSp had an overall similarity of 54.4% with the product of a Saccharomyces cerevisiae ORF (YER087) and 43.8% with the prolyl-tRNA synthetase of Escherichia coli (COLIPRO). Consensus C lass II aminoacyl-tRNA synthetase sequences were identified by the PRO SITE program. CaPRS was localized to chromosome R of the C. albicans g enome and CaPRS DNA hybridized to a major RNA transcript of 1.7 kb und er all conditions tested. The CaPRS sequence submitted to the EMBL dat a library is available under Accession Number U86341. (C) 1997 John Wi ley & Sons, Ltd.