Homology between cellulase genes of Trichoderma reesei: complete nucleotide sequence of the endoglucanase I gene

Merja Penttilä, Päivi Lehtovaara, Helena Nevalainen, Ramagauri Bhikhabhai, Jonathan Knowles*

*Corresponding author for this work

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticleScientificpeer-review

    261 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    The filamentous fungus Trichoderma reesei produces several endoglucanases (EG) and cellobiohydrolases (CBH) which are involved in cellulose hydrolysis in a complex synergistic manner. We have cloned and sequenced the gene and the full-length cDNA coding for the major endoglucanase EG-I, and compared this to the cbhl gene sequence to clarify the relationship between the EG and CBH classes of cellulases. The deduced 437-amino acids (aa) long EG-I protein with a 22-aa long signal peptide is 45% identical in aa sequence with CBH-I. The best conserved region is found at the C terminus and shows about 70% homology. The data suggest that the two enzymes have arisen from a common ancestor by gene duplication. Despite this, the intron positions have not been conserved in these genes which both contain two short introns. The deduced EG-I sequence contains six putative N-glycosylation sites, and a putative O-glycosylated region is found near the C terminus, closely resembling a similar region at the C terminus of CBH-I. Comparison of the aa sequences suggests that the evolutionary divergence of EG-I from CBH-I has involved four separate 10-20 aa "deletions" from the ancestral protein.

    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)253-263
    JournalGene
    Volume45
    Issue number3
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 1 Jan 1986
    MoE publication typeA1 Journal article-refereed

    Funding

    We want to thank warmly Prof. T.-M. Enari, Drs. M.-L. Niku-Paavola, I. Salovuori and T.T. Teeri (VTT Biotechnical Laboratory, Finland), P.L. Jorgensen (D.T.H., Technical University, Denmark) and G. Pettersson (BMC Uppsala University, Sweden) for many useful discussions and for providing unpublished results. The excellent technical assistance of K. Berg, R. Nurmi, P. Veijola-Bailey and P. Vallius is also greatly acknowledged. This work was financially supported by the Neste Oy’s Foundation.

    Keywords

    • cDNA
    • cellobiohydrolase
    • filamentous fungus
    • gene family
    • glycosylation
    • introns
    • phage λ clones
    • Recombinant DNA

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