Molecular cloning of homologs of RAS and RHO1 genes from Cryptococcus neoformans

We cloned and sequenced homologs of RAS (CnRAS) and RHO1 (CnRHO1) genes fro m Cryptococcus neoformans. The proteins encoded by the CnRAS and CnRHO1 gen es contained 216 and 197 amino acids, respectively. The deduced amino acid sequence of the CnRAS gene shared a high degree of sequence identity with t he Ras proteins in other fungal species: Coprinus cinereus (76%), Lentinula edodes (74%), Saccharomyces cerevisiae RAS2 (72%), and Schizosaccharomyces pombe (68%). The deduced amino acid sequence of the CnRHO1 gene shared a h igh degree of sequence identity with the Rho1 proteins in other fungal spec ies: Candida albicans (78%), S. pombe (77%) and S. cerevisiae (76%). The de duced proteins contained GTP-binding and GTP-hydrolysis domains, and the pr enylation site that are conserved among the small G protein superfamily. Th e synthetic peptides that contained the C-terminal amino acid sequence of t he CnRas and CnRho1 proteins were geranylgeranylated. The DDBJ/EMBL/GenBank Accession Numbers of the CnRAS and CnRHO1 genes are AB017640 and AB017639, respectively. Copyright (C) 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.