Dipartimento di Genetica e di Biologia dei Microrganismi, Università di Milano, Italy.
GTP-cyclohydrolase I is the first enzyme in the biosynthetic pathway leading to folic acid and tetrahydrobiopterin. We determined the complete sequence of the GTP-cyclohydrolase I gene from the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae. The gene, which is located in the subtelomeric region of the right arm of chromosome VII, gives a major transcript of about 1000 nt and encodes a protein of 243 amino acids, which is highly homologous to the GTP-cyclohydrolase I from bacteria to man. We obtained by gene replacement a knock-out mutant that shows a recessive conditional lethality due to folinic acid auxotrophy, and lacks any detectable specific enzymatic activity. The gene was identified as FOL2, previously genetically mapped in the same region (J. Game, personal communication).