ISOLATION OF A YEAST GENE, SRH1, THAT ENCODES A HOMOLOG OF THE 54K SUBUNIT OF MAMMALIAN SIGNAL RECOGNITION PARTICLE

A 1.7 kilobase HindIII fragment of Saccharomyces cerevisiae DNA was cloned by cross-hybridization with the Escherichia coli secY gene. The complete nucleotide sequence of the 2.6 kb fragment of the yeast genomic DNA containing the cross-hybridizing HindIII. fragment was determined. The sequence showed no apparent similarity with that of the E. coli secY gene with the exception of a completely matched sequence of 21 bp, but it contained a 1,623 nucleotide open reading frame coding for a protein of 541 amino acids with a calculated Mr of 59,600. The N-terminal portion of 303 residues of the predicted sequence was homologous to the cytosolic domain of the α-subunit of the signal recognition particle receptor (SRα), including consensus sequence elements for a GTP binding site, whereas the C-terminal portion of 238 residues had an unusual methionine-rich domain containing several repetitive sequences. An mRNA of 2.0 kb was detected on Northern blotting analysis. The predicted sequence was 48% identical with the reported sequences of the 54K subunit of the mammalian signal recognition particle (SRP54) (Romisch K. et al. (1989) Nature 340, 478-483; Bernstein, H.D. et al. (1989) Nature 340, 482-486). We designated this gene as SRH1 (SRP54 homologue). Gene disruption experiments showed that the SRH1 gene product is essential for cell growth. © 1990 COPYRIGHT, 1990 BY THE JOURNAL OF BIOCHEMISTRY.