Molecular cloning and nucleotide sequence of cDNA for rat ornithine carbamoyltransferase precursor

Messenger RNA of rat ornithine carbamoyltransferase (EC 2.1.3.3), a mitochondrial matrix enzyme, was enriched by immunoprecipitation of rat liver free polysomes, and recombinant plasmids were prepared from the enriched mRNA by a vector-primer method. The cDNA clones for ornithine carbamoyltransferase were identified by hybrid-arrested translation and hybrid-selected translation. One of the clones, designated pOTC-1, contained a 1.6-kilobase insert and hybridized to a mRNA of approximately equal to 1.8 kilobases in rat liver. The cDNA clone was subjected to nucleotide sequence analysis. The deduced amino acid sequence indicates that the ornithine carbamoyltransferase precursor consists of the mature enzyme of 322 amino acid residues and an NH2-terminal peptide extension (presequence) of 32 amino acid residues. The presequence contains 8 basic amino acid residues, no acidic residues, and no hydrophobic amino acid stretch. The amino acid sequence of the rat ornithine carbamoyltransferase was compared with the recently reported sequence of the human enzyme [Horwich, A. L., Fenton, W. A., Williams, K. R., Kalousek, F., Kraus, J. P., Doolittle, R. F., Konigsberg, W. & Rosenberg, L. E. (1984) Science 224, 1068-1074]. The sequences of the mature enzyme portion are 93% identical, whereas those of the presequences are 69% identical. There are two highly conserved segments in the presequences of the rat and human enzymes. One of the two conserved segments is significantly similar to a segment of the presequence of yeast mitochondrial elongation factor EF-Tu. These results suggest that the homologous segments are important for the proteins that are synthesized in the cytosol to be transported into the mitochondrial matrix.