Molecular cloning and domain structure of chicken pyruvate carboxylase

Pyruvate carboxylase (PC) [EC 6.4.1.1] is a biotin-dependent carboxylase that catalyses the conversion of pyruvate to oxaloacetate. Here we have determined the complete nucleotide sequence encoding chicken PC (cPC) by screening a liver cDNA library, by RT-PCR of poly(A)(+) RNA, and by PCR of genomic DNA. The full-length transcript contains an open reading frame of 3537 nucleotides, including the stop codon, encoding a polypeptide of 1178 amino acids with M(r) of 127,262. The amino acid sequence of cPC shows approximately 77% identity to mammalian PC. Limited proteolysis of pure cPC with chymotrypsin yields a major stable 75 kDa C-terminal peptide, including the biotinyl domain and a minor, unstable 39 kDa N-terminal peptide. Northern analysis of poly(A)(+) RNA isolated from chicken liver has shown that cPC's mRNA is approximately 5 kb in length, including a very long 3'-untranslated region.