Sequence and structure of mtr, an amino acid transport gene of Neurospora crassa

Abstract

The gene product of the mtr locus of Neurospora crassa is required for the transport of neutral aliphatic and aromatic amino acids via the N system. We have previously cloned three cosmids containing Neurospora DNA that complement the mtr-6(r) mutant allele. The cloned DNAs were tightly linked to restriction fragment length polymorphisms that flank the mtr locus. A 2.9-kbp fragment from one cosmid was subcloned and found to complement the mtr-6(r) allele. Here we report the sequence of the fragment that hybridized to a poly(A)+ mRNA transcript of about 2300 nucleotides. We have identified an 845-bp open reading frame (ORF) having a 59-bp intron as the potential mtr ORF. S1 nuclease analysis of the transcript confirmed the transcript size and the presence of the intron. A second open reading frame was found upstream in the same reading frame as the mtr ORF and appears to be present in the mRNA transcript. The mtr ORF is predicted to encode a 261 amino acid polypeptide with a molecular mass of 28 613 Da. The proposed polypeptide exhibits six potential alpha-helical transmembrane domains with an average length of 23 amino acids, does not have a signal sequence, and contains amino acid sequence homologous to an RNA binding motif.