scholarly journals Synthesis and assembly of the cytoskeleton of Naegleria gruberi flagellates.

1984 ◽  
Vol 98 (2) ◽  
pp. 449-456 ◽  
Author(s):  
C Walsh

When Naegleria gruberi flagellates were extracted with nonionic detergent and stained by the indirect immunofluorescence method with AA-4.3 (a monoclonal antibody against Naegleria beta-tubulin), flagella and a network of cytoskeletal microtubules (CSMT) were seen. When Naegleria amebae were examined in the same way, no cytoplasmic tubulin-containing structures were seen. Formation of the flagellate cytoskeleton was followed during the differentiation of amebae into flagellates by staining cells with AA-4.3. The first tubulin containing structures were a few cytoplasmic microtubules that formed at the time amebae rounded up into spherical cells. The formation of these microtubules was followed by the appearance of basal bodies and flagella and then by the formation of the CSMT. The CSMT formed before the cells assumed the flagellate shape. In flagellate shaped cells the CSMT radiate from the base of the flagella and follow a curving path the full length of the cell. Protein synthetic requirements for the formation of CSMT were examined by transferring cells to cycloheximide at various times after initiation. One-half the population completed the protein synthesis essential for formation of CSMT 61 min after initiation of the differentiation. This is 10 min after the time when protein synthesis for formation of flagella is completed and 10-15 min before the time when the protein synthesis necessary for formation of the flagellate shape is completed.

1976 ◽  
Vol 69 (1) ◽  
pp. 106-125 ◽  
Author(s):  
D L Brown ◽  
A Massalski ◽  
R Patenaude

The organization of microtubular systems in the quadriflagellate unicell Polytomella agilis has been reconstructed by electron microscopy of serial sections, and the overall arrangement confirmed by immunofluorescent staining using antiserum directed against chick brain tubulin. The basal bodies of the four flagella are shown to be linked in two pairs of short fibers. Light microscopy of swimming cells indicates that the flagella beat in two synchronous pairs, with each pair exhibiting a breast-stroke-like motion. Two structurally distinct flagellar rootlets, one consisting of four microtubules in a 3 over 1 pattern and the other of a striated fiber over two microtubules, terminate between adjacent basal bodies. These rootlets diverge from the basal body region and extend toward the cell posterior, passing just beneath the plasma membrane. Near the anterior part of the cell, all eight rootlets serve as attachment sites for large numbers of cytoplasmic microtubules which occur in a single row around the circumference of the cell and closely parallel the cell shape. It is suggested that the flagellar rootless may function in controlling the patterning and the direction of cytoplasmic microtubule assembly. The occurrence of similar rootlet structures in other flagellates is briefly reviewed.


1991 ◽  
Vol 260 (2) ◽  
pp. F185-F191 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. H. Ayo ◽  
R. A. Radnik ◽  
W. F. Glass ◽  
J. A. Garoni ◽  
E. R. Rampt ◽  
...  

Nodular expansion of glomerular mesangium with increased amounts of extracellular matrix (ECM) material is pathognomic of diabetic nephropathy. The precise mechanisms involved in this accumulation are unknown. Recently, we reported using a solid-phase enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) technique that glomerular mesangial cells, the principal cell type residing in glomerular mesangium, accumulate 50–60% more fibronectin (FN), laminin (LM), and type IV collagen (T-IV) when cultured in medium containing high glucose (30 mM) (S. H. Ayo, R. A. Rodnik, J. Garoni, W. F. Glass II, and J. I. Kreiberg. Am. J. Pathol. 136: 1339-1348, 1990). ECM assembly is controlled by its rate of synthesis and degradation, as well as its binding and rate of incorporation into the ECM. To elucidate the mechanisms involved, pulse-chase experiments were designed to estimate ECM protein synthesis from the incorporation of Trans-35S [( 35S]methionine, [35S]cysteine) into immunoprecipitated FN, LM, and T-IV. mRNA levels were examined, and degradation rates were estimated from the disappearance of radioactivity from matrix proteins in mesangial cells previously incubated with Trans-35S. One week of growth in 30 mM glucose resulted in approximately 40–50% increase in the synthesis of all three matrix proteins compared with 10 mM glucose-grown cells. This was accompanied by a significant increase in the transcripts for all three matrix proteins (approximately twofold). The specific activity of the radiolabel in trichloroacetic acid-precipitable cell protein showed no difference between cells grown in 10 or 30 mM glucose, indicating that total protein synthesis was unchanged. After 1 wk, the rate of FN, LM, and T-IV collagen degradation was unchanged.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)


1982 ◽  
Vol 2 (12) ◽  
pp. 1644-1648 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. C. Inglis

Cloned DNA copies of two cellular genes were used to monitor, by blot hybridization, the stability of particular cell mRNAs after infection by influenza virus and herpesvirus. The results indicated that the inhibition of host cell protein synthesis that accompanied infection by each virus could be explained by a reduction in the amounts of cellular mRNAs in the cytoplasm, and they suggested that this decrease was due to virus-mediated mRNA degradation.


2010 ◽  
Vol 84 (20) ◽  
pp. 10457-10466 ◽  
Author(s):  
Margarito Rojas ◽  
Carlos F. Arias ◽  
Susana López

ABSTRACT The eukaryotic initiation translation factor 2 (eIF2) represents a key point in the regulation of protein synthesis. This factor delivers the initiator Met-tRNA to the ribosome, a process that is conserved in all eukaryotic cells. Many types of stress reduce global translation by triggering the phosphorylation of the α subunit of eIF2, which reduces the formation of the preinitiation translation complexes. Early during rotavirus infection, eIF2α becomes phosphorylated, and even under these conditions viral protein synthesis is not affected, while most of the cell protein synthesis is blocked. Here, we found that the kinase responsible for the phosphorylation of eIF2α in rotavirus-infected cells is PKR, since in mouse embryonic fibroblasts deficient in the kinase domain of PKR, or in MA104 cells where the expression of PKR was knocked down by RNA interference, eIF2α was not phosphorylated upon rotavirus infection. The viral component responsible for the activation of PKR seems to be viral double-stranded RNA, which is found in the cytoplasm of infected cells, outside viroplasms. Taken together, these results suggest that rotaviruses induce the PKR branch of the interferon system and have evolved a mechanism to translate its proteins, surpassing the block imposed by eIF2α phosphorylation.


1971 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 217-232 ◽  
Author(s):  
William J. Cruickshank

2006 ◽  
Vol 8 (9-10) ◽  
pp. 1497-1508 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karen Block ◽  
Jill M. Ricono ◽  
Duck–Yoon Lee ◽  
Basant Bhandari ◽  
Goutam Ghosh Choudhury ◽  
...  

Cell ◽  
1982 ◽  
Vol 28 (3) ◽  
pp. 435-436 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ellie Ehrenfeld

1983 ◽  
Vol 213 (2) ◽  
pp. 417-425 ◽  
Author(s):  
G E Morris ◽  
L P Head

A competition e.l.i.s.a. (enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay) is described that enables direct measurement of the muscle-specific polypeptide of chick creatine kinase (M-CK) in extracts of differentiating muscle-cell cultures and in blood plasma samples, even in the presence of embryonic, or brain-type, creatine kinase. The characteristics of the assay can be considerably improved by the use of a monoclonal antibody, CK-ART, instead of rabbit antisera, and we offer an explanation for this in terms of heterogeneity of antibody affinities in polyclonal antisera. In addition to native enzyme, the assay will measure creatine kinase unfolded and inactivated by 8 M-urea treatment. During chick muscle differentiation in vitro, M-CK increased from 7.5% of the total creatine kinase at 24h to 76.0% at 143h, in good agreement with isoenzyme separation data. As a percentage of the total cell protein, M-CK increased by 156-340-fold over the same period and constituted 0.38-0.56% of the total protein in late cultures. E.l.i.s.a. measurements on 17-20-day embryonic thigh-muscle extracts, which contain almost exclusively M-CK, agree well with enzyme activity and radioimmunoassay. M-CK constituted 0.7-1.6% of the total protein in 17-19-day embryonic thigh muscle. Plasma M-CK concentrations in normal 2-8-week-old chickens were found to be in the range 0.5-0.9 micrograms/ml. Plasma concentrations of 32-56 micrograms/ml were found in 8-week-old dystrophic chickens by both e.l.i.s.a. and enzyme-activity measurements. The results suggest that inactive or unfolded forms of M-CK do not normally exist, in any significant amounts, in cell and tissue extracts or in freshly prepared samples of plasma.


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