A variety of isoprenoid compounds are synthesized by various organisms. Forexample in eukaryotes the isoprenoid biosynthetic pathway is responsible forthe synthesis of a variety of end products including cholesterol, dolichol,ubiquinone or coenzyme Q. In bacteria this pathway leads to the synthesis ofisopentenyl tRNA, isoprenoid quinones, and sugar carrier lipids. Among theenzymes that participate in that pathway, are a number of polyprenylsynthetase enzymes which catalyze a 1'4-condensation between 5 carbon isopreneunits.It has been shown [1, 2, 3, 4, 5] that all the above enzymes share some regions ofsequence similarity. Two of these regions are rich in aspartic-acid residuesand could be involved in the catalytic mechanism and/or the binding of thesubstrates.

1. Elucidation of the deficiency in two yeast coenzyme Q mutants. Characterization of the structural gene encoding hexaprenyl pyrophosphate synthetase. J. Biol. Chem. 265, 13157-64
2. Cloning and nucleotide sequence of the ispA gene responsible for farnesyl diphosphate synthase activity in Escherichia coli. J. Biochem. 108, 995-1000
3. The Neurospora crassa carotenoid biosynthetic gene (albino 3) reveals highly conserved regions among prenyltransferases. J. Biol. Chem. 266, 5854-9
4. Identification of a cDNA for the plastid-located geranylgeranyl pyrophosphate synthase from Capsicum annuum: correlative increase in enzyme activity and transcript level during fruit ripening. Plant J. 2, 25-34
5. The crtE gene in Erwinia herbicola encodes geranylgeranyl diphosphate synthase. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 89, 6761-4

A variety of isoprenoid compounds are synthesized by various organisms. Forexample in eukaryotes
Show more...

Download genes (select columns to include)