Intracellular localization of Aspergillus nidulans ornithine carbamoyltransferase in native host cells and in Saccharomyces cerevisiae cells harbouring its cloned structural gene.

Abstract

Differential centrifugation of the Aspergillus nidulans cell lysate shows that ornithine carbamoyltransferase (EC 2.1.3.3) appears mainly in the particulate (organellar) fraction. The enzyme was located to the mitochondria by co-sedimentation with cytochrome oxidase in isopycnic density gradient and by cytochemical-electron microscopic means. Arginase (EC 3.5.3.1) and ornithine delta-aminotransferase (E.C. 2.6.1.13) were found to reside in cytosol. The release of ornithine carbamoyltransferase from the organellar fraction by various agents indicates that the enzyme resides in the mitochondrial matrix. In Saccharomyces cerevisiae the plasmid pSAL43, carrying cloned Aspergillus nidulans ornithine carbamoyltransferase gene, directs the synthesis of the enzyme partially associated with yeast mitochondria even though the homologous yeast enzyme is exclusively cytosolic. The implications of these findings are discussed. Show more