THE STRUCTURE OF LIPASE GENES AND PSEUDOGENES OF CANDIDA CYLINDRACEA

Abstract

Candida cylindracea produces at least two kinds of extracellular lipase, lipase I and lipase [. From the mutant which produces a large amount of lipase I and a negligible amount of lipase [[, we obtained the lipase I cDNAs and genomic genes. Lipase I genes were classified into several types by sequencing and restriction analysis. Lipase I proteins were thought to be encoded by several homologous genes. Lipase I was homologous with Geotrichum candidum lipases. Furthermore, we obtained pseudogenes showing more than 90% homology with lipase I cDNA. Although the amino acid composition of purified lipase I was consistent with that deduced from the cDNA sequence, significant discrepancies were evident in the contents of leucine and serine. These discrepancies are due to the different genetic code used by C. cylindracea, in which the universal codon for leucine, CUG, is used to code for serine.