CLONING AND EXPRESSION IN YEAST OF A HIGHER-PLANT CHORISMATE MUTASE - MOLECULAR-CLONING, SEQUENCING OF THE CDNA AND CHARACTERIZATION OF THE ARABIDOPSIS-THALIANA ENZYME EXPRESSED IN YEAST

Chorismate mutase (EC 5.4.99.5) catalyzes the first step in the branch of the shikimate pathway which leads to the aromatic amino acids, phenylalanine and tyrosine. We have isolated a cDNA for this enzyme from the higher plant, Arabidopsis thaliana, by complementing a yeast strain (aro7) with a cDNA library from A. thaliana. This is the first chorismate mutase cDNA isolated from a plant. It encodes a protein of 334 amino acids, The identity of the deduced amino acid sequence is 41 % to the chorismate mutase sequence from Saccharomyces cerevisiae. The N-terminal portion of the deduced amino acid sequence has no homology to the S. cerevisiae sequence but resembles known plastid-specific transit peptides. The A. thaliana chorismate mutase expressed in yeast revealed allosteric control by the three aromatic amino acids, as previously described for plastidic chorismate mutase isozymes.