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Brief Communication
Is alba an RNase P subunit?
J. Chris Ellis, Jeffrey Barnes and James W. Brown
volume 4 | issue 3
july-decemberSubscribe to this journal for $59/year
It has been suggested that Alba, a well-established chromatin protein in Archaea, is also a subunit of the archaeal RNase P holoenzyme, based on the observation that the homolog of this protein in humans has been shown to be associated with RNase P activity. Using the same biochemical methods we used previously to show that four other proteins homologous to eukaryotic RNase P proteins are bona fide RNase P subunits in Archaea, we could not detect any association of the Alba homolog in Methanothermobacter thermoautotrophicus (Mth1483p) with the RNase P holoenzyme. In addition, the presence of Mth1483p did not enhance the activity of RNase P holoenzyme reconstituted from recombinant subunits. In conclusion, we find no evidence that Alba is an RNase P subunit.
Authors
J. Chris Ellis
Laboratory of Signal Transduction; NIEHS, Research Triangle Park, North Carolina USA
Jeffrey Barnes
Applied Biosystems, Inc.; Foster City, California USA
James W. Brown
Department of Microbiology; North Carolina State University; Raleigh, North Carolina USA