speA (PA4839, Q9HUX1) review notes

Biosynthetic arginine decarboxylase (ADC, EC 4.1.1.19), 636 aa, PLP- and
Mg2+-dependent, Orn/Lys/Arg decarboxylase class-II family, SpeA subfamily
(HAMAP MF_01417; NCBIfam TIGR01273; PANTHER PTHR43295). Converts L-arginine to
agmatine; agmatine is then converted to putrescine by AguA (agmatine deiminase)
and AguB (N-carbamoylputrescine amidohydrolase).

Literature (no deep-research provider available; own reading)

Nakada & Itoh 2003 (abstract only; no PMC full text): identified speA and
speC in PAO1 PMID:12634339; ADC and ODC activities were similar and each
sufficed for growth PMID:12634339; the speA speC double mutant was a
putrescine auxotroph PMID:12634339. The IMP for ADC activity most likely reflects
loss of ADC activity in the speA mutant; with the HAMAP SpeA assignment this
is sound.
Haas et al. 1984 showed that arginine is degraded by an arginine
decarboxylase (agmatine) pathway in P. aeruginosa (aguA, aguB mutants)
PMID:6423933, but I could not establish from the abstracts whether the
catabolic route uses SpeA itself. The InterPro2GO L-arginine catabolic process
row is therefore left UNDECIDED.
PubMed MCP search returned API errors on 2026-11-05.

PseudoCAP IBA-seed assessment

Other seeds' experimental support queried live in QuickGO on 2026-11-05.

PTN node	node term	n_seeds	leaf IBAs	seed annotation (term, evidence, PMID)	verdict	rationale	other seeds	IBD stands without this seed?
PTN008680444	GO:0008792 arginine decarboxylase activity	4	103 (55 taxa)	GO:0008792, IMP, PMID:12634339 (PseudoCAP and CACAO)	SOUND	Abstract states speA encodes ADC, with activity comparable to ODC and putrescine auxotrophy of the speA speC mutant; HAMAP SpeA subfamily agrees.	E. coli SpeA P21170 (EXP/IDA, e.g. PMID:2198270, PMID:8088419), Arabidopsis ADC1 AT2G16500 and ADC2 AT4G34710	Yes; E. coli SpeA alone has several IDA/EXP rows

No PSEUDOCAP or GO_CENTRAL defect. The node lies in PTHR43295 (arginine
decarboxylase), not in the ODC family node PTN000159726; the AZIN1
MISSING_NEGATION defect recorded in genes/PSEAE/speC does not concern this node.