The Schizosaccharomyces pombe GP18 gene complements a Saccharomyces cerevisiae GP18 anchoring mutant

The final step in glycosylphosphatidylinositol (GPI) anchoring of cell surf ace proteins consists of a transamidation reaction, in which preassembled C PI donors are substituted for C-terminal signal sequences in nascent polype ptides. The Saccharomyces cerevisiae GP18 gene (ScGP18) encodes a protein w hich is involved in the GPI transamidation reaction. We have cloned and iso lated the Schizosaccharomyces pombe GPI8 homologous gene (SpGPI8). The SpGP I8 gene encodes a protein of 411 amino acids with a calculated molecular we ight of about 47 kDa. It shows 53.5% identity with the ScGPI8 and complemen ts a S. cerevisiae GP18 anchoring mutant. The nucleotide sequence data repo rted in this paper appears in the EMBL Data Bank nucleotide sequence databa se with Accession No. AJ250428. Copyright (C) 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.