Identification, evolution, and essentiality of the mevalonate pathway for isopentenyl diphosphate biosynthesis in gram-positive cocci.

ABSTRACT: The mevalonate pathway and the glyceraldehyde 3-phosphate (GAP)-pyruvate pathway are alternative routes for the biosynthesis of the central isoprenoid precursor, isopentenyl diphosphate. Genomic analysis revealed that the staphylococci, streptococci, and enterococci possess genes predicted to encode all of the enzymes of the mevalonate pathway and not the GAP-pyruvate pathway, unlike Bacillus subtilis and most gram-negative bacteria studied, which possess only components of the latter pathway. Phylogenetic and comparative genome analyses suggest that the genes for mevalonate biosynthesis in gram-positive cocci, which are highly divergent from those of mammals, were horizontally transferred from a primitive eukaryotic cell. Enterococci uniquely encode a bifunctional protein predicted to pos

SUBMITTER: Wilding EI 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC101949 | biostudies-literature | 2000 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature