Roles of Polyamines in Thermophiles
Tairo Oshima
from: Thermophilic Microorganisms (Edited by: Fu-Li Li). Caister Academic Press, U.K. (2015) Pages: 179-188.
Abstract
Extreme thermophiles often produce unusual polyamines such as longer polyamines (for instance caldopentamine) and branched polyamines (for instance, tetrakis(3-aminopropyl)ammonium). These polyamines are essential for life at higher temperature and the highest growth temperatures of mutants which lack a gene involved in unusual polyamine synthesis, are lower than those of wild type cells. Unusual polyamines protect DNA and RNA from thermal damages more efficiently than the standard polyamines. Enzymes and metabolic pathways of unusual polyamine biosynthesis are unique and new pathways and new enzymes have been clarified read more ...
