Isolation and characterization of a mutant dihydrofolate reductase-thymidylate synthase from methotrexate-resistant Leishmania cells
The MTX-resistant Leishmania major promastigote cell line D7BR1000 displays extrachromosomal amplified R-region DNA, which contains the gene for dihydrofolate reductase-thymidylate synthase (DHFR-TS) (Garvey, E. P., and Santi, D. V. (1986) Science 233, 535-540). Now we report that these methotrexate...
| Authors: | , , , , , , |
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| Format: | article |
| Publication Date: | 1994 |
| Country: | España |
| Institution: | Universidad Complutense de Madrid (UCM) |
| Repository: | Docta Complutense |
| Language: | English |
| OAI Identifier: | oai:docta.ucm.es:20.500.14352/58263 |
| Online Access: | https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/58263 |
| Access Level: | Open access |
| Keyword: | Bioquímica (Biología) Microbiología (Biología) Biología molecular (Biología) 2302 Bioquímica 2414 Microbiología 2415 Biología Molecular |
| Summary: | The MTX-resistant Leishmania major promastigote cell line D7BR1000 displays extrachromosomal amplified R-region DNA, which contains the gene for dihydrofolate reductase-thymidylate synthase (DHFR-TS) (Garvey, E. P., and Santi, D. V. (1986) Science 233, 535-540). Now we report that these methotrexate (MTX)-resistant cells also possessed a structurally altered DHFR-TS. We have performed the cloning, expression, and characterization of the altered DHFR-TS gene. The DNA sequence of the altered DHFR-TS gene revealed a single base change in position 158 which resulted in the substitution of a methionine in position 53 of DHFR for an arginine. Steady-state measurements of the purified recombinant enzyme indicated that the mutation did not cause significant modifications in the Km for DHFR or TS substrates but lowered the kcat by 4-fold. Of greater interest, there was a modification in the effect on MTX inhibition of DHFR. The initial inhibition complex appeared to have been unaffected by the alteration, but the subsequent slow-binding step of inhibition in the wild-type enzyme is absent in the altered enzyme. Consequently, the overall Ki for MTX was 30-fold greater for the mutant than for the wild-type enzyme. Transfection of L. major with the mutant DHFR-TS gene gives parasites that are capable of growing in medium containing 10 mM methotrexate, showing that the altered DHFR gene is in itself capable of conferring MTX resistance in Leishmania. |
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