Summary
A database search has revealed significant and extensive sequence similarities among prokaryotic and eukaryotic pyridoxal phosphate (PLP)-dependent decarboxylases, includingDrosophila glutamic acid decarboxylase (GAD) and bacterial histidine decarboxylase (HDC). Based on these findings, the sequences of seven PLP-dependent decarboxylases from five different organisms have been aligned to derive a consensus sequence for this family of enzymes. In addition, quantitative methods have been employed to calculate the relative evolutionary distances between pairs of the decarboxylases comprising this family. The multiple sequence analysis together with the quantitative results strongly suggest an ancient and common origin for all PLP-dependent decarboxylases. This analysis also indicates that prokaryotic and eukaryotic HDC activities evolved independently. Finally, a sensitive search algorithm (PROFILE) was unable to detect additional members of this decarboxylase family in protein sequence databases.
Article PDF
Avoid common mistakes on your manuscript.
References
Bossa F, Martini F, Barra D, Voltattorni B, Minelli A, Turano C (1977) The chymotrypic phosphopyridoxyl peptide of dopa decarboxylase from pig kidney. Biochem Biophys Res Comm 78:177–184
De Luca V, Marineau C, Brisson N (1989) Molecular cloning and analysis of cDNA encoding a plant tryptophan decarboxylase: comparison with animal dopa decarboxylases. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 86:2582–2586
Devereux J, Haeberli P, Smithies O (1984) A comprehensive set of sequence analysis programs for the VAX. Nucleic Acids Res 12:387–395
Dunathan HC, Voet JG (1974) Stereochemical evidence for the evolution of pyridoxal-phosphate enzymes of various function from a common ancestor. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 71: 3888–3891
Eveleth DD, Marsh JL (1986) Evidence for evolutionary duplication of genes in the dopa decarboxylase region ofDrosophila. Genetics 114:469–483
Eveleth DD, Gietz RD, Spencer CA, Nargang FE, Hodgetts RB, Marsh JL (1986) Sequence and structure of the dopa decarboxylase gene ofDrosophila: evidence for novel RNA splicing variants. EMBO J 5:2663–2672
Gribskov M, McLachlan AD, Eisenberg D (1987) Profile analysis: detection of distantly related proteins. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 84:4355–4358
Jackson FR, Newby LM, Kulkarni SJ (1990)Drosophila GABAergic systems: sequence and expression of glutamic acid decarboxylase. J. Neurochem 54:1068–1078
Joseph DR, Sullivan PM, Wang Y-M, Kozak C, Fenstermacher DA, Behrendsen ME, Zahnow CA (1990) Characterization and expression of the complementary DNA encoding rat histidine decarboxylase. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 87:733–737
Kahana C, Nathans D (1985) Nucleotide sequence of murine ornithine decarboxylase mRNA. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 82:1673–1677
Kobayashi Y, Kaufman DL, Tobin A (1987) Glutamic acid decarboxylase cDNA: nucleotide sequence encoding an enzymatically active fusion protein. J Neurosci 7:2768–2772
Legay F, Henry S, Tappaz M (1987) Evidence for two distinct forms of native glutamic acid decarboxylase in rat brain soluble extract: an immunoblotting study. J Neurochem 48:1022–1026
Marsh JL, Erfle M, Leeds C (1986) Molecular localization, developmental expression and nucleotide sequence of thealpha-methyldopa hypersensitive gene ofDrosophila. Genetics 114:453–467
Pearson WR, Lipman DJ (1988) Improved tools for biological sequence analysis. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 85:2444–2448
Siegel G, Agranoff B, Albers RW, Molinoff P (1989) Basic neurochemistry, ed 4. Raven Press, New York
Tanaka T, Horio Y, Taketoshi M, Imamura I, Ando-Yamamoto M, Kangawa K, Matsuo H, Kuroda M, Wada H (1989) Molecular cloning and sequencing of a cDNA of rat dopa decarboxylase: partial amino acid homologies with other enzymes synthesizing catecholamines. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 86: 8142–8146
Vaaler GL, Brasch MA, Snell EE (1986) Pyridoxal 5′-phosphate-dependent histidine decarboxylase: nucleotide sequence of thehdc gene and the corresponding amino acid sequence. J Biol Chem 261:11010–11014
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Jackson, F.R. Prokaryotic and eukaryotic pyridoxal-dependent decarboxylases are homologous. J Mol Evol 31, 325–329 (1990). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02101126
Received:
Revised:
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02101126