Aldritt S M, Joseph J T, Wirth D F
Department of Tropical Public Health, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts.
Mol Cell Biol. 1989 Sep;9(9):3614-20. doi: 10.1128/mcb.9.9.3614-3620.1989.
We have identified a gene that encodes the polypeptide cytochrome b in the avian malarial parasite Plasmodium gallinaceum. The gene containing the open reading frame was found to be located on a 6.2-kilobase multimeric extrachromosomal element. The amino acid translation from this gene demonstrated significant similarities to cytochrome b sequences from yeast, mammal, and fungus genomes. We present evidence that the P. gallinaceum cytochrome b transcript is part of a larger primary transcript from the element that is subsequently processed. The message for P. gallinaceum cytochrome b was found to be 1.2 kilobases in size. This is the first report identifying a mitochondrial nucleic acid sequence in malaria-causing organisms and suggests that a functional cytochrome system may exist in these parasites.
我们已经鉴定出一个基因，它在禽疟原虫鸡疟原虫中编码多肽细胞色素b。含有开放阅读框的基因位于一个6.2千碱基的多聚体染色体外元件上。该基因的氨基酸翻译结果显示与酵母、哺乳动物和真菌基因组中的细胞色素b序列有显著相似性。我们提供的证据表明，鸡疟原虫细胞色素b转录本是该元件一个更大的初级转录本的一部分，随后会被加工。鸡疟原虫细胞色素b的信使核糖核酸大小为1.2千碱基。这是首次报道在疟原虫中鉴定出线粒体核酸序列，并表明这些寄生虫中可能存在功能性细胞色素系统。
