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A cytidine triphosphate synthetase gene in Plasmodium falciparum
E F Hendriks1, W J O'Sullivan, T S Stewart
1School of Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics, University of New South Wales, Kensington, Australia.
Abstract:
The malarial parasite Plasmodium falciparum is dependent on de novo synthesis for its pyrimidine nucleotide requirements. However, the activity of the key enzyme in cytidine nucleotide synthesis, CTP synthetase (EC 6.3.4.2), has not been reported. We present evidence for a CTP synthetase gene in P. falciparum, having isolated a PCR product obtained using 2 primers derived from the CTP synthetase amino acid consensus sequences DPYINVDPG and GICLGMQ. The amplified DNA segment encodes an amino acid sequence with considerable homology to CTP synthetases from several other species including human and yeast.