Amino acid sequence requirements for ornithine decarboxylase activity

Abstract

ODC activity of the altered proteins was measured and compared to that of the full length 461 amino acid containing ODC. Mouse ODC cDNA sequences were deleted from either 5' or 3' ends using exonuclease III and Mung Bean nuclease treatments. An internal deletion was obtained by Hinc II and Bcl I restriction endonuclease digestion of the full length ODC cDNA. Capped mRNAs were synthesized in vitro using the resulting deleted DNA as templates, and the protein was translated in vitro. The results indicate that the protein in which translation initiates at internal AUG start codons does not have any activity. The protein with 39 amino acids deleted from carboxy-terminus maintains 12% of the activity, while deletion of greater than 79 amino acids have no activity. An internal deletion from amino acid 290 to 331 and which may contain the suspected ornithine binding site has no activity. These results suggest that the entire amino acid sequence of mouse ODC is required for full activity of the enzyme.