A NEW ESSENTIAL GENE LOCATED ON SACCHAROMYCES-CEREVISIAE CHROMOSOME-IX

A new 1150 amino acids long open reading frame (ORF), coding for an es sential protein of unknown function was found in Saccharomyces cerevis iae by sequencing 3754 bp of geonomic DNA. The clone was isolated in a search for a fatty acid-binding protein (FABP) and was localized on c hromosome IX. The ORF bears no homology to FABP, but it shows weak sim ilarity to Plasmodium vivax reticulocyte binding protein 1 and to aggr egation-specific adenylate cyclase from Dictyostelium discoideum. The new gene is constitutively transcribed regardless of the carbon source used. The nucleotide sequence reported in this paper has been deposit ed in GenBank (Accession Number U17918).