Cloning, purification, and properties of Candida albicans thymidylate synthase

The thymidylate synthase (TS) gene was isolated from a genomic Candida albicans library by functional complementation of a Saccharomyces cerevisiae strain deficient in TS. The gene was localized on a 4-kilobase HindIII DNA fragment and was shown to be expressed in a Thy- strain of Escherichia coli. The nucleotide sequence of the TS gene predicted a protein of 315 amino acids with a molecular weight of 36,027. The gene was cloned into a T7 expression vector in E. coli, allowing purification of large amounts of C. albicans TS. It was also purified from a wild-type C. albicans strain. Comparison of several enzyme properties including analysis of amino-terminal amino acid sequences showed the native and cloned C. albicans TS to be the same.