Tabata K, Ishida S, Nakahara T, Hoshino T
Institute of Applied Biochemistry, University of Tsukuba, Ibaraki, Japan.
FEBS Lett. 1994 Mar 21;341(2-3):251-5. doi: 10.1016/0014-5793(94)80466-4.
In Thermus thermophilus HB27, the crtB gene encoding phytoene synthase was found to exist on the large plasmid, pTT27. One of the carotenoid under-producing mutants, Crt31, carried a derivative of pTT27 (pTT27') in which deletion and inversion were observed near the crtB gene. T. thermophilus HB8 also contained a large plasmid which showed homology to pTT27 and the crtB gene. These results suggested that genes for carotenoid biosynthesis occurred as a cluster on a large plasmid in Thermus thermophilus. This is the first report to show directly that carotenogenesis is plasmid-encoded in microorganisms.
在嗜热栖热菌HB27中，发现编码八氢番茄红素合成酶的crtB基因存在于大质粒pTT27上。类胡萝卜素产量较低的突变体之一Crt31携带pTT27的衍生物（pTT27'），在crtB基因附近观察到缺失和倒位。嗜热栖热菌HB8也含有一个与pTT27和crtB基因具有同源性的大质粒。这些结果表明，类胡萝卜素生物合成基因在嗜热栖热菌的大质粒上成簇存在。这是首次直接表明微生物中的类胡萝卜素合成是由质粒编码的报告。
