Cloning and characterization of Arabidopsis thaliana AtNAP57--a homologue of yeast pseudouridine synthase Cbf5p.

Rat Nap57 and its yeast homologue Cbf5p are pseudouridine synthases involved in rRNA biogenesis, localized in the nucleolus. These proteins, together with H/ACA class of snoRNAs compose snoRNP particles, in which snoRNA guides the synthase to direct site-specific pseudouridylation of rRNA. In this paper we present an Arabidopsis thaliana protein that is highly homologous to Cbf5p (72% identity and 85% homology) and NAP57 (67% identity and 81% homology). Moreover, the plant protein has conserved structural motifs that are characteristic features of pseudouridine synthases of the TruB class. We have named the cloned and characterized protein AtNAP57 (Arabidopsis thaliana homologue of NAP57). AtNAP57 is a 565 amino-acid protein and its calculated molecular mass is 63 kDa. The protein is encoded by a single copy gene located on chromosome 3 of the A. thaliana genome. Interestingly, the AtNAP57 gene does not contain any introns. Mutations in the human DKC1 gene encoding dyskerin (human homologue of yeast Cbf5p and rat NAP57) cause dyskeratosis congenita a rare inherited bone marrow failure syndrome characterized by abnormal skin pigmentation, nail dystrophy and mucosal leukoplakia.