Cloning of the Candida albicans nucleoside transporter by complementation of nucleoside transport-deficient...

The nucleoside permease gene (i.e. NUP) from Candida albicans was cloned by complementation of Saccharomyces cerevisiae deficient in nucleoside transport capability. The permease transported adenosine and guanosine and was sensitive to the mammalian nucleoside transport inhibitors: dipyridamole and NBMPR. It did not transport uridine, cytidine, adenine, guanine or uracil. The inability to transport uridine indicated that the NUP gene product was different from the Candida uridine permease, which also transported cytosine and adenosine. The NUP gene coded for a protein of 407 amino acids in size which was approximately the size of the human, Giardia and E. coli nucleoside permeases. It did not, however, exhibit any significant degree of homology with these transporters.