The \u3cem\u3eMeiothermus ruber\u3c/em\u3e Mrub_2572 gene is an ortholog of the \u3cem\u3eEscherichia coli\u3c/em\u3e pyrE b3642 gene and the \u3cem\u3eMeiothermus ruber\u3c/em\u3e Mrub_2071 gene is an ortholog of the \u3cem\u3eEscherichia coli\u3c/em\u3e pyrF b1281 gene

Abstract

This project is part of the Meiothermus ruber genome analysis project, which uses the bioinformatics tools associated with the Guiding Education through Novel Investigation –Annotation Collaboration Toolkit (GENI-ACT) to predict gene function. We investigated the biological function of the genes Mrub_2572 and Mrub_2071. We predict that Mrub_2572 encodes the enzyme orotate phosphoribosyltransferase (DNA coordinates 2617545..2618096 on the forward strand), which is the 5th step of the UMP biosynthesis pathway (KEGG map number 00240). It catalyzes the conversion of orotate + PRPP to orotidine 5’-phosphate. The E. coli K12 MG1655 ortholog is predicted to be b3642, which has the gene identifier pyrE. We also predict that Mrub_2071 encodes the enzyme orotidine 5\u27-phosphate decarboxylase (DNA coordinates 2109095..2109871 on the forward strand), which is the 6th step of the UMP biosynthesis pathway (KEGG map number 00240). It catalyzes the conversion of orotidine 5’-phosphate to uridine monophosphate (UMP). The E. coli K12 MG1655 ortholog is predicted to be b1281, which has the gene identifier pyrF