Isolation of Penicillium chrysogenum PEX1 and PEX6 encoding AAA proteins involved in peroxisome biogenesis.

In Penicillium chrysogenum, key enzymes involved in the production of penicillin reside in peroxisomes. As a first step to understand the role of these organelles in penicillin biosynthesis, we set out to isolate the genes involved in peroxisome biogenesis. Here we report the cloning and characterization of P. chrysogenum PEX1 and PEX6, which encode proteins of the AAA family of ATPases. The second AAA module, which is essential for the function of Pex1p and Pex6p in peroxisome biogenesis, is highly conserved in both PcPexlp and PcPex6p. PcPEX1 and PcPEX6 contain three and two introns, respectively.