Plasmid-encoded anthranilate synthase (TrpEG) in Buchnera aphidicola from aphids of the family pemphigidae.

ABSTRACT: Buchnera aphidicola is an obligate intracellular symbiont of aphids. One of its proposed functions is the synthesis of essential amino acids, nutrients required by aphids but deficient in their diet of plant phloem sap. The genetic organization of the tryptophan pathway in Buchnera from proliferous aphids of the family Aphididae has previously been shown to reflect a capacity to overproduce this essential amino acid (C.-Y. Lai, L. Baumann, and P. Baumann, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 91:3819-3823, 1994). This involved amplification of the genes for the first enzyme in the pathway, anthranilate synthase (TrpEG), on a low-copy-number plasmid. Here we report on the finding and molecular characterization of TrpEG-encoding plasmids in Buchnera from aphids of the distantly related family Pemphigid

SUBMITTER: Van Ham RCHJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC90991 | biostudies-literature | 1999 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature