Abstract of related literatures |
1. Five mouse alpha-tubulin isotypes are described, each distinguished by the presence of unique amino acid substitutions within the coding region. Most, though not all of these isotype-specific amino acids, are clustered at the carboxy terminus. One of the alpha-tubulin isotypes described is expressed exclusively in testis and is encoded by two closely related genes (M alpha 3 and M alpha 7) which have homologous 3' untranslated regions but which differ at multiple third codon positions and in their 5' untranslated regions. We show that a subfamily of alpha-tubulin genes encoding the same testis-specific isotype also exists in humans. Thus, we conclude that the duplication event leading to a pair of genes encoding a testis-specific alpha-tubulin isotype predated the mammalian radiation, and both members of the duplicated sequence have been maintained since species divergence. A second alpha-tubulin gene, M alpha 6, is expressed ubiquitously at a low level, whereas a third gene, M alpha 4, is unique in that it does not encode a carboxy-terminal tyrosine residue. This gene yields two transcripts: a 1.8-kilobase (kb) mRNA that is abundant in muscle and a 2.4-kb mRNA that is abundant in testis. Whereas the 1.8-kb mRNA encodes a distinct alpha-tubulin isotype, the 2.4-kb mRNA is defective in that the methionine residue required for translational initiation is missing. Patterns of developmental expression of the various alpha-tubulin isotypes are presented. Our data support the view that individual tubulin isotypes are capable of conferring functional specificity on different kinds of microtubules. PMID: [3785200]
2. This study describes comprehensive polling of transcription start and termination sites and analysis of previously unidentified full-length complementary DNAs derived from the mouse genome. We identify the 5' and 3' boundaries of 181,047 transcripts with extensive variation in transcripts arising from alternative promoter usage, splicing, and polyadenylation. There are 16,247 new mouse protein-coding transcripts, including 5154 encoding previously unidentified proteins. Genomic mapping of the transcriptome reveals transcriptional forests, with overlapping transcription on both strands, separated by deserts in which few transcripts are observed. The data provide a comprehensive platform for the comparative analysis of mammalian transcriptional regulation in differentiation and development. PMID: [16141072]
3. The National Institutes of Health's Mammalian Gene Collection (MGC) project was designed to generate and sequence a publicly accessible cDNA resource containing a complete open reading frame (ORF) for every human and mouse gene. The project initially used a random strategy to select clones from a large number of cDNA libraries from diverse tissues. Candidate clones were chosen based on 5'-EST sequences, and then fully sequenced to high accuracy and analyzed by algorithms developed for this project. Currently, more than 11,000 human and 10,000 mouse genes are represented in MGC by at least one clone with a full ORF. The random selection approach is now reaching a saturation point, and a transition to protocols targeted at the missing transcripts is now required to complete the mouse and human collections. Comparison of the sequence of the MGC clones to reference genome sequences reveals that most cDNA clones are of very high sequence quality, although it is likely that some cDNAs may carry missense variants as a consequence of experimental artifact, such as PCR, cloning, or reverse transcriptase errors. Recently, a rat cDNA component was added to the project, and ongoing frog (Xenopus) and zebrafish (Danio) cDNA projects were expanded to take advantage of the high-throughput MGC pipeline. PMID: [15489334]
4. We describe five mouse tubulin cloned cDNAs, two (M alpha 1 and M alpha 2) that encode alpha-tubulin and three (M beta 2, M beta 4, and M beta 5) that encode beta-tubulin. The sequence of these clones reveals that each represents a distinct gene product. Within the sequence common to the two alpha-tubulin cDNAs, the encoded amino acids are identical, though the 3' noncoding regions are wholly dissimilar. In contrast, the three beta-tubulin cDNAs show considerable carboxy-terminal heterogeneity. Two of the beta-tubulin isotypes defined by the cloned sequences are absolutely conserved between mouse and human, and all three beta-tubulin isotypes are conserved between mouse and rat. This result implies the existence of selective constraints that have maintained sequence identity after species divergence. This conclusion is reinforced by the near identity between a third mouse beta-tubulin isotype and a chicken beta-tubulin isotype. The significance of the interspecies conservation of tubulin isotypes is discussed in relationship to microtubule function. We have used non-cross-hybridizing 3' noncoding region probes from the five cloned mouse tubulin cDNAs to study the developmental expression of each isotype in various mouse tissues. M alpha 1 and M beta 2 are expressed in an approximately coordinate fashion, and their transcripts are most abundant in brain and lung. M alpha 2 and M beta 5 are ubiquitously expressed and to a similar extent in each tissue, with the greatest abundance in spleen, thymus, and immature brain. In contrast, M beta 4 is expressed exclusively in brain. Whereas the expression of the latter isotype increases dramatically during postnatal development, transcripts from all four other tubulin genes decline from maximum levels at or before birth. Tissue-specific development changes in the abundance of tubulin isotype-specific mRNAs are discussed in relationship to organogenesis in the mouse. PMID: [3839797]
5. Proper development of the mammalian brain requires the precise integration of numerous temporally and spatially regulated stimuli. Many of these signals transduce their cues via the reversible phosphorylation of downstream effector molecules. Neuronal stimuli acting in concert have the potential of generating enormous arrays of regulatory phosphoproteins. Toward the global profiling of phosphoproteins in the developing brain, we report here the use of a mass spectrometry-based methodology permitting the first proteomic-scale phosphorylation site analysis of primary animal tissue, identifying over 500 protein phosphorylation sites in the developing mouse brain. PMID: [15345747]
6. Polyglutamylation of tubulin has been implicated in several functions of microtubules, but the identification of the responsible enzyme(s) has been challenging. We found that the neuronal tubulin polyglutamylase is a protein complex containing a tubulin tyrosine ligase-like (TTLL) protein, TTLL1. TTLL1 is a member of a large family of proteins with a TTL homology domain, whose members could catalyze ligations of diverse amino acids to tubulins or other substrates. In the model protist Tetrahymena thermophila, two conserved types of polyglutamylases were characterized that differ in substrate preference and subcellular localization. PMID: [15890843]
7. Polyglycylation is a posttranslational modification that generates glycine side chains on proteins. Here we identify a family of evolutionarily conserved glycine ligases that modify tubulin using different enzymatic mechanisms. In mammals, two distinct enzyme types catalyze the initiation and elongation steps of polyglycylation, whereas Drosophila glycylases are bifunctional. We further show that the human elongating glycylase has lost enzymatic activity due to two amino acid changes, suggesting that the functions of protein glycylation could be sufficiently fulfilled by monoglycylation. Depletion of a glycylase in Drosophila using RNA interference results in adult flies with strongly decreased total glycylation levels and male sterility associated with defects in sperm individualization and axonemal maintenance. A more severe RNAi depletion is lethal at early developmental stages, indicating that protein glycylation is essential. Together with the observation that multiple proteins are glycylated, our functional data point towards a general role of glycylation in protein functions. PMID: [19524510] Back to Top |