The genes in the thermophilic cyanobacterium Synechococcus vulcanus encoding cytochrome-c oxidase

It is still controversial whether cyanobacteria (blue-green algae) contain an aa3-type cytochrome-c oxidase. We have approached this problem using DNA analysis. Using a DNA probe coding for the most conserved part of subunit I of the Bacillus enzymes, structural genes for the oxidase of a thermophilic cyanobacterium Synechococcus vulcanus were cloned and sequenced. We found genes for subunits II, I, III and IV of this order like those of the Bacillus enzymes, and a terminator structure after the gene for subunit IV. The deduced protein sequences for the subunits II, I and III showed consensus amino-acid residues atevery important portion, suggesting that these genes are operating. However, the S. vulcanus oxidase lacked a cytochrome-c-moiety fused to subunit II, the 13th and 14th hydrophobic segments of subunit I which are lacking in the Paracoccus enzyme, and the 1st and 2nd ones of subunit III which are lacking in the Bacillus enzyme, were not found. A gene homologous to ctaB gene, which locates at the 5'-upstream region of the gene for subunit II and co-transcribed in Bacillus subtilis, was not found. Comparison of protein sequences showed that S. vulcanus cytochrome oxidase is closer to Bacillus cytochrome oxidases than the mitochondrial and Paracoccus enzymes, or quinol oxidases from B. subtilis and Escherichia coli.