ISOLATION OF A NOVELL SOYBEAN GENE ENCODING A MITOCHONDRIAL ATP SYNTHASE SUBUNIT

A novel ATP synthase gene from soybean has been cloned and characteriz ed. A subunit from the F-A portion of the complex is encoded by two nu clear genes. The genomic clone(s) contain five exons encoding a protei n of 179 amino acids. The amino terminal end contains many properties of a mitochondrial targeting sequence and preliminary in vitro import studies indicate that there is a cleavable precursor of approximately 30 amino acids. The predicted protein sequence shows high homology wit h the N-terminal sequence from an isolated subunit of ATP synthase com plex from spinach (Hamsaur and Glaser (1992) fur. J. Biochem. 205, 409 -416). The subunit was tentatively identified as the equivalent of sub unit d in bovine and P18 in yeast based on structural identity. (C) 19 94 Academic Press,Inc.