Trypanosoma brucei: Four tandemly linked genes for fatty acyl-CoA synthetases

We have cloned four acyl CoA synthetase (ACS) genes from Trypanosoma brucei strain 927. Each of these genes encodes a polypeptide about 78 kDa in size and ail four contain the "ACS signature motif." Sequence alignments indica te that these proteins are 46%-95% identical in amino acid sequence. Intere stingly, three of them share almost identical C-termini (about 215 amino ac id residues). Southern blots suggest that these genes are present in a sing le copy, and Northern blots reveal that all four are expressed in both bloo dstream and procyclic trypanosomes. (C) 2000 Academic Press.