IDENTIFICATION OF AN ACETOLACTATE SYNTHASE SMALL-SUBUNIT GENE IN 2 EUKARYOTES

Acetolactate synthase catalyses the first step in branched-chain amino acid biosynthesis. The bacterial enzyme contains two large and two sm all subunits but there is only limited and circumstantial evidence for a small subunit in the eukaryotic enzyme. Here this evidence is summa rised and protein sequences of two putative eukaryotic small subunits, from a yeast and a red alga, are presented. (C) Elsevier Science B.V.