Tu Translation Elongation Factor, Mitochondrial (tUFM)

Mitochondrial elongation factor Tu (EF-TuMT, or TUFM) is encoded in the nucleus and functions in the translational apparatus of mitochondria. Ling et al. (1997) determined the complete human TUFM cDNA sequence of 1,677 bp, including a 101-bp 5-prime untranslated region and a 207-bp 3-prime untranslated region.

The predicted protein is approximately 49.8 kD and is composed of 455 amino acids, with a putative N-terminal mitochondrial leader sequence of approximately 50 amino acids. The predicted amino acid sequence shows high similarity to other EF-Tu protein sequences from yeast and bacteria. Northern blot analysis detected an approximately 1.7-kb TUFM transcript in human liver.