Significance of two distinct types of tryptophan synthase beta chain in Bacteria, Archaea and higher plants

Authors

Gary Xie, Los Alamos National Laboratory
Christian Forst, Los Alamos National Laboratory
Carol Bonner, University of Florida
Roy A. Jensen, CUNY City College

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

December 2002

Abstract

Tryptophan synthase consists of two subunits, α and β. Two subgroups of β chain exist; the major group TrpEb_1 and the minor group, TrpEb_2. Conserved amino-acid residues of TrpEb_1 that make allosteric contact with the TrpEa subunit (the α chain) are absent in TrpEb_2. Representatives of Archaea, Bacteria and higher plants all exist that possess both TrpEb_1 and TrpEb_2. at least six lineages of the Archaea are likely to use TrpEb_2 as the functional β chain.

Comments

This work was originally published in Genome Biology, available at ttps://doi.org/10.1186/gb-2001-3-1-research0004