The gene coding for starch phosphorylase (EC 2.4.1.1) was isolated from a potato genomic library constructed in lambda EMBL3. It is an unusually long plant gene (16.4 kb) which encodes a preprotein of 966 amino acids. The phosphorylase coding sequence is interrupted by 14 introns whose positions do not match those of the introns in the human glycogen phosphorylase gene. A 78 amino acid central peptide unique to plant plastidial phosphorylases is hypothesized to have arisen through the mis-splicing of an intron-exon junction site in an ancestral gene. The fifth intron of the phosphorylase is very large (approximately 7 kb) and contains a copia-like transposable element inserted in the opposite orientation to that of the phosphorylase gene. This element has been named Tst1; it is bordered on the 5' and 3' sides by long terminal repeats of 285 and 283 bp respectively, which define an internal domain of 4492 bp. Tst1 contains 4 open reading frames (ORFs) that encode protein domains for a reverse transcriptase, an integrase, an RNA-binding site and a protease. Transcription of the phosphorylase gene appears to proceed unimpaired through the copia element.

The type L isozyme of potato tuber alpha-glucan phosphorylase [EC 2.4.1.1], a dimer of 104-kDa subunits, is compartmentalized in the amyloplast. We have cloned a nearly full-length cDNA encoding this isozyme from a cDNA library of immature potato tuber. The sequence was supplemented by a partial genomic clone. The transcription initiation site was identified by a primer extension experiment to be 43 bases upstream from the translation initiation ATG codon. The message encodes a polypeptide of 966 amino acid residues, of which 50 residues constitute an N-terminal extended peptide and 916 residues make up the mature protein. In the mature protein region, the nucleotide sequence is consistent with the chemically determined amino acid sequence (Nakano, K. & Fukui, T. (1986) J. Biol. Chem. 261, 8230-8236). The N-terminal extension bears characteristic features of the transit peptides of nuclear-encoded chloroplastic proteins, and is therefore regarded as a transit peptide for the amyloplast. This peptide is rich in basic amino acids (5 arginines, 3 lysines, and 5 histidines) and hydroxylic amino acids (7 serines and 5 threonines), but lacks acidic amino acids. It is therefore classified as one of the most basic transit peptides so far reported.

The subcellular localization and maturation of starch phosphorylase (EC 2.4.1.1) was studied in developing potato tubers. The enzyme is localized inside the stroma of amyloplasts in young tubers, whereas in mature tubers it is found within the cytoplasm in the immediate vicinity of the plastids. A phosphorylase cDNA clone was isolated and used in RNA gel blot experiments to demonstrate that phosphorylase mRNAs are of the same size and abundance in both young and mature tubers. In vitro translation of mRNAs followed by immunoprecipitation with a phosphorylase antiserum indicates that the enzyme is synthesized as a higher molecular weight precursor in both young and mature tubers. The presence of a transit peptide at the N terminus of the protein was confirmed by the sequencing of the phosphorylase cDNA clone. The transit peptide has several structural features common to transit peptides of chloroplast proteins but contains a surprisingly large number of histidine residues. The mature form of the enzyme is present in both young and mature tubers, suggesting that a similar processing of the transit peptide may take place in two different subcellular locations.