N-terminal amino acid sequence of the novel type IIIb trimethoprim-resistant plasmid-encoded dihydrofolate reductase from Shigella sonnei.

The type IIIb dihydrofolate reductase, a novel plasmid-encoded enzyme recently identified in Shigella sonnei, has been shown to have some similar biochemical properties to the type IIIa dihydrofolate reductase which was first identified in New Zealand in 1979. However, the type IIIb enzyme has a Ki for trimethoprim of 0.4 microM, and a pI of 5.35 (as compared to 19 nM and 6.1 for the type IIIa); both these results suggest that it is a different enzyme from the prototype type IIIa. The type IIIb dihydrofolate reductase was purified by methotrexate agarose affinity chromatography, yielding a pure protein as determined by HPLC. Automatic amino acid analysis of the purified enzyme showed it to be distinct from all other known plasmid-encoded dihydrofolate reductases and quite different from the type IIIa enzyme. The purified enzyme was examined by SDS-PAGE, which revealed that the type IIIb dihydrofolate reductase was a monomeric protein of Mr 17,200.