The Schizosaccharomyces pombe cho1+ Gene Encodes a Phospholipid Methyltransferase

The Schizosaccharomyces pombe cho1⁺ Gene Encodes a Phospholipid Methyltransferase

Margaret I. Kanipes^a, John E. Hill^b, and Susan A. Henry^c
^a Department of Biochemistry, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, North Carolina 27710,
^b Pre-Clinical Research and Development, Hoffman-LaRoche, Inc., Nutley, New Jersey 07110
^c Department of Biological Sciences, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15213

Corresponding author: Susan A. Henry, Department of Biological Sciences, Carnegie Mellon University, 4400 Fifth Ave., Pittsburgh, PA 15213., sh4b+{at}andrew.cmu.edu (E-mail).

Communicating editor: P. G. YOUNG

The isolation of mutants of Schizosaccharomyces pombe defectivein the synthesis of phosphatidylcholine via the methylationof phosphatidylethanolamine is reported. These mutants are cholineauxotrophs and fall into two unlinked complementation groups,cho1 and cho2. We also report the analysis of the cho1⁺ gene,the first structural gene encoding a phospholipid biosyntheticenzyme from S. pombe to be cloned and characterized. The cho1⁺gene disruption mutant (cho1 ${Delta}$ ) is viable if choline is suppliedand resembles the cho1 mutants isolated after mutagenesis. Sequenceanalysis of the cho1⁺ gene indicates that it encodes a proteinclosely related to phospholipid methyltransferases from Saccharomycescerevisiae and rat. Phospholipid methyltransferases encodedby a rat liver cDNA and the S. cerevisiae OPI3 gene are bothable to complement the choline auxotrophy of the S. pombe cho1mutants. These results suggest that both the structure and functionof the phospholipid N-methyltransferases are broadly conservedamong eukaryotic organisms.

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