Summary.
Recent research progress on polyamines in extreme thermophiles is reviewed. Extreme thermophiles produce two types of unique polyamines; one is longer polyamines such as caldopentamine and caldohexamine, and the other is branched polyamines such as tetrakis(3-aminopropyl)ammonium. The protein synthesis catalyzed by a cell-free extract of Thermus thermophilus, an extreme thermophile, required the presence of a polyamine and the highest activity was found in the presence of tetrakis(3-aminopropyl)ammonium. In vitro experiments, longer polyamines efficiently stabilized double stranded nucleic acids and a branched polyamine, tetrakis(3-aminropyl)ammonium, stabilized stem-and-loop structures. In T. thermophilus, polyamines are synthesized from arginine by a new metabolic pathway; arginine is converted to agmatine and then agmatine is aminopropylated to N1-aminopropylagmatine which is converted to spermidine by an enzyme coded by a gene homologous to speB (a gene for agmatinase). In this new pathway spermidine is not synthesized from putrescine. Reverse genetic studies indicated that the unique polyamines are synthesized from spermidine.
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Abbreviations
- Poly(U):
-
polyuridilic acid
- speA :
-
gene coding for arginine decarboxylase
- speB :
-
gene coding for agmatine ureohydrolase
- speD :
-
gene coding for S-adenosylmethinine decarboxylase
- speE :
-
gene coding for spermidine synthase or spermine synthase
- speC :
-
gene coding for ornithine decarboxylase
- Tm :
-
melting temperature
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Oshima, T. Unique polyamines produced by an extreme thermophile, Thermus thermophilus . Amino Acids 33, 367–372 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00726-007-0526-z
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00726-007-0526-z