Cloning of an Arabidopsis thaliana cDNA coding for farnesyl diphosphate synthase by functional complementation in yeast

A cDNA encoding farnesyl diphosphate synthase, an enzyme that synthesizes C15 isoprenoid diphosphate from isopentenyl diphosphate and dimethylallyl diphosphate, was cloned from an Arabidopsis thaliana cDNA library by complementation of a mutant of Saccharomyces cerevisiae deficient in this enzyme. The A. thaliana cDNA was also able to complement the lethal phenotype of the erg20 deletion yeast mutant. As deduced from the full-length 1.22 kb cDNA nucleotide sequence, the polypeptide contains 343 amino acids and has a relative molecular mass of 39689. The predicted amino acid sequence presents about 50% identity with the yeast, rat and human FPP synthases. Southern blot analyses indicate that A. thaliana probably contains a single gene for farnesyl diphosphate synthase.