Molecular Cloning, Expression, and Purification of Undecaprenyl Diphosphate Synthase. No Sequence Similarity Between E- and Z-prenyl Diphosphate Synthases

Cloning of the gene for undecaprenyl diphosphate synthase was successful, providing the first primary structure for any prenyltransferase that catalyzes Z-prenyl chain elongation. A genomic DNA library of Micrococcus luteus B-P 26 was constructed in Escherichia coli, and the recombinant clones were grown on nylon membranes. The membrane was incubated directly by floating it on a reaction mixture containing radiolabeled isopentenyl diphosphate, nonlabeled farnesyl diphosphate, and Mg2+. Only the clones harboring plasmids encoding prenyltransferases could take up the substrates to synthesize and accumulate radiolabeled products inside the cells in amounts large enough to be detectable by autoradiography. Four positive colonies were found among about 4,000 bacterial colonies of the genomic DNA library. Two of them carried the gene for undecaprenyl diphosphate synthase, which catalyzes the Z-prenyl chain elongation, and the others carried the (all-E)-hexaprenyl diphosphate synthase genes (hexs-a and hexs-b; Shimizu, N., Koyama, T., and Ogura, K. (1998) J. Bacteriol. 180, 1578-1581). The undecaprenyl diphosphate synthase, which had a predicted molecular mass of 28.9 kDa, was overproduced in E. coli cells by applying a soluble expression system, and it was purified to near homogeneity. The deduced primary structure of the Z-prenyl chain-elongating enzyme is totally different from those of E-prenyl chain-elongating enzymes, which have characteristic conserved regions, including aspartate-rich motifs.