N. Navaratnam et al., THE P27 CATALYTIC SUBUNIT OF THE APOLIPOPROTEIN-B MESSENGER-RNA EDITING ENZYME IS A CYTIDINE DEAMINASE, The Journal of biological chemistry, 268(28), 1993, pp. 20709-20712
The messenger RNA for apolipoprotein B undergoes a discrete and specif
ic C to U editing of nucleotide 6666. This generates a stop translatio
n codon and defines the carboxyl terminus of apolipoprotein B48. A 27-
kDa rat intestinal protein that does not itself edit apolipoprotein B
mRNA, but confers editing activity on chick intestinal extracts that d
o not have intrinsic editing activity, has recently been identified an
d its cDNA cloned (Teng, B., Burant, C. F., and Davidson, N. O. (1993)
Science 260, 1816-1819). Here we show that p27 is homologous in the z
inc coordinating region of the active site to cytidine deaminases from
Escherichia coli, Bacillus subtilis, yeast, and man and to deoxycytid
ylate deaminases from T2 and T4 bacteriophages and man. p27 expressed
in Xenopus laevis oocyte extracts has cytidine deaminase activity and
specifically confers editing activity on chick intestinal extracts. Th
e homologous E. coli cytidine deaminase does not confer editing activi
ty. The zinc-specific chelating agent o-phenanthroline abolishes p27 a
ctivity and site-specific apolipoprotein B mRNA editing in rat enteroc
yte editing extracts. We conclude that p27 is the catalytic subunit of
the apolipoprotein B mRNA editing enzyme and is a zinc-containing cyt
idine deaminase.