ISOLATION AND IDENTIFICATION OF 6 PNEUMOCYSTIS-CARINII GENES UTILIZING CODON BIAS

Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia (PCP) is a leading cause of death among AIDS patients in the United States. Our analysis of P. carinii protei n-coding genes has revealed a significant A + T codon bias. Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) was utilized to isolate and identify the genes e ncoding calmodulin, beta-tubulin, DNA polymerase II, and RNA polymeras es I, II and III from P. carinii. Primer pairs were designed to incorp orate P. carinii codon preference to known conserved protein regions f rom other organisms. This strategy should be useful for a large variet y of P. carinii genes and assist in the comprehensive analysis of the genomic structure of this important pathogen.