COMPARISON OF FUNGAL ORNITHINE DECARBOXYLASES

We designed PCR primers hy comparison of the deduced amino acid sequen ces of several ornithine decarboxylase (ODC) genes. They were used to amplify fragments homologous to these genes from several dimorphic fun gi. These were sequenced and the deduced amino acid sequences were com pared with the corresponding regions of ODCs from different sources, F ungal ODCs fell into a compact group, well separated from the ODCs of other taxa, Sequence homology among fungal enzymes corresponded to the ir taxonomic position, Interesting patterns of amino acid conservation in ODCs from fungi, distinct from other organisms, were detected.