scholarly journals Regulation of tubulin levels and microtubule assembly in Saccharomyces cerevisiae: consequences of altered tubulin gene copy number.

1990 ◽  
Vol 10 (10) ◽  
pp. 5286-5294 ◽  
Author(s):  
W Katz ◽  
B Weinstein ◽  
F Solomon
Keyword(s):  
Saccharomyces Cerevisiae ◽  
Cellular Response ◽  
Gene Copy Number ◽  
Microtubule Assembly ◽  
Gene Copy ◽  
Microtubule Organization ◽  
Beta Tubulin ◽  
Alpha Tubulin ◽  
Tubulin Genes ◽  
Tubulin Protein

Microtubule organization in the cytoplasm is in part a function of the number and length of the assembled polymers. The intracellular concentration of tubulin could specify those parameters. Saccharomyces cerevisiae strains constructed with moderately decreased or increased copy numbers of tubulin genes provide an opportunity to study the cellular response to a steady-state change in tubulin concentration. We found no evidence of a mechanism for adjusting tubulin concentrations upward from a deficit, nor did we find a need for such a mechanism: cells with no more than 50% of the wild-type tubulin level were normal with respect to a series of microtubule-dependent properties. Strains with increased copies of both alpha- and beta-tubulin genes, or of alpha-tubulin genes alone, apparently did down regulate their tubulin levels. As a result, they contained greater than normal concentrations of tubulin but much less than predicted from the increase in gene number. Some of this down regulation occurred at the level of protein. These strains were also phenotypically normal. Cells could contain excess alpha-tubulin protein without detectable consequences, but perturbations resulting in excess beta-tubulin genes may have affected microtubule-dependent functions. All of the observed regulation of levels of tubulin can be explained as a response to toxicity associated with excess tubulin proteins, especially if beta-tubulin is much more toxic than alpha-tubulin.

Regulation of tubulin levels and microtubule assembly in Saccharomyces cerevisiae: consequences of altered tubulin gene copy number

1990 ◽  
Vol 10 (10) ◽  
pp. 5286-5294
Author(s):  
W Katz ◽  
B Weinstein ◽  
F Solomon
Keyword(s):  
Saccharomyces Cerevisiae ◽  
Cellular Response ◽  
Gene Copy Number ◽  
Microtubule Assembly ◽  
Gene Copy ◽  
Microtubule Organization ◽  
Beta Tubulin ◽  
Alpha Tubulin ◽  
Tubulin Genes ◽  
Tubulin Protein

Microtubule organization in the cytoplasm is in part a function of the number and length of the assembled polymers. The intracellular concentration of tubulin could specify those parameters. Saccharomyces cerevisiae strains constructed with moderately decreased or increased copy numbers of tubulin genes provide an opportunity to study the cellular response to a steady-state change in tubulin concentration. We found no evidence of a mechanism for adjusting tubulin concentrations upward from a deficit, nor did we find a need for such a mechanism: cells with no more than 50% of the wild-type tubulin level were normal with respect to a series of microtubule-dependent properties. Strains with increased copies of both alpha- and beta-tubulin genes, or of alpha-tubulin genes alone, apparently did down regulate their tubulin levels. As a result, they contained greater than normal concentrations of tubulin but much less than predicted from the increase in gene number. Some of this down regulation occurred at the level of protein. These strains were also phenotypically normal. Cells could contain excess alpha-tubulin protein without detectable consequences, but perturbations resulting in excess beta-tubulin genes may have affected microtubule-dependent functions. All of the observed regulation of levels of tubulin can be explained as a response to toxicity associated with excess tubulin proteins, especially if beta-tubulin is much more toxic than alpha-tubulin.

Phenotypic consequences of tubulin overproduction in Saccharomyces cerevisiae: differences between alpha-tubulin and beta-tubulin

1990 ◽  
Vol 10 (10) ◽  
pp. 5295-5304
Author(s):  
B Weinstein ◽  
F Solomon
Keyword(s):  
Saccharomyces Cerevisiae ◽  
Cell Division ◽  
Microtubule Assembly ◽  
Beta Tubulin ◽  
Alpha Tubulin ◽  
Tubulin Genes ◽  
Data Support ◽  
Cell Biol

Overexpression of alpha- and beta-tubulin genes in Saccharomyces cerevisiae, separately or together, leads to accumulation of large excesses of each of the polypeptides and arrest of cell division. However, other consequences of overexpression of these genes differ in several ways. As shown previously (D. Burke, P. Gasdaska, and L. Hartwell, Mol. Cell. Biol. 9:1049-1059, 1989), overexpression of beta-tubulin leads, at early times, to loss of microtubule structures and loss of viability. Eventually, the excess beta-tubulin forms abnormal structures. We show here that, in contrast, overexpression of alpha-tubulin led to none of these phenotypes and in fact could suppress each of the phenotypes associated with beta-tubulin accumulation. Truncated forms of beta-tubulin that were not competent to carry out microtubule functions also failed to elicit the beta-tubulin-specific phenotypes when overexpressed. The data support the hypothesis that beta-tubulin in excess over alpha-tubulin is uniquely toxic, perhaps because it interferes with normal microtubule assembly.

scholarly journals Phenotypic consequences of tubulin overproduction in Saccharomyces cerevisiae: differences between alpha-tubulin and beta-tubulin.

1990 ◽  
Vol 10 (10) ◽  
pp. 5295-5304 ◽  
Author(s):  
B Weinstein ◽  
F Solomon
Keyword(s):  
Saccharomyces Cerevisiae ◽  
Cell Division ◽  
Microtubule Assembly ◽  
Beta Tubulin ◽  
Alpha Tubulin ◽  
Tubulin Genes ◽  
Data Support ◽  
Cell Biol

Overexpression of alpha- and beta-tubulin genes in Saccharomyces cerevisiae, separately or together, leads to accumulation of large excesses of each of the polypeptides and arrest of cell division. However, other consequences of overexpression of these genes differ in several ways. As shown previously (D. Burke, P. Gasdaska, and L. Hartwell, Mol. Cell. Biol. 9:1049-1059, 1989), overexpression of beta-tubulin leads, at early times, to loss of microtubule structures and loss of viability. Eventually, the excess beta-tubulin forms abnormal structures. We show here that, in contrast, overexpression of alpha-tubulin led to none of these phenotypes and in fact could suppress each of the phenotypes associated with beta-tubulin accumulation. Truncated forms of beta-tubulin that were not competent to carry out microtubule functions also failed to elicit the beta-tubulin-specific phenotypes when overexpressed. The data support the hypothesis that beta-tubulin in excess over alpha-tubulin is uniquely toxic, perhaps because it interferes with normal microtubule assembly.

scholarly journals Differential expressions of essential and nonessential alpha-tubulin genes in Schizosaccharomyces pombe.

1986 ◽  
Vol 6 (6) ◽  
pp. 2168-2178 ◽  
Author(s):  
Y Adachi ◽  
T Toda ◽  
O Niwa ◽  
M Yanagida
Keyword(s):  
Schizosaccharomyces Pombe ◽  
Gene Copy Number ◽  
Gene Copy ◽  
Temperature Sensitive ◽  
Regulatory Sequences ◽  
Tubulin Gene ◽  
Alpha Tubulin ◽  
Tubulin Genes ◽  
In The Wild ◽  
A Minor

The fission yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe has two alpha-tubulin genes and one beta-tubulin gene. Gene disruption experiments showed that the alpha 1-tubulin gene (NDA2) is essential whereas the alpha 2 gene is dispensable. The alpha 2-disrupted cells missing alpha 2 transcript and alpha 2 polypeptide could grow and sporulate normally. The alpha 2 gene, however, was expressed in the wild type and the alpha 1 mutant. Alpha 2-Tubulin was distinguished as an electrophoretic band and was assembled into microtubules. The alpha 2-disrupted cells had an increased sensitivity to an antimicrotubule drug thiabendazole, and the alpha 1(cold-sensitive [cs]) alpha 2 (disrupted) cells became not only cs but also temperature sensitive. Northern blot experiments indicated that alpha 2 transcription was minor and constitutive whereas alpha 1 transcription was major and modulated, depending on the gene copy number of the alpha 2 gene. The amounts of alpha 1 and alpha 2 polypeptides estimated by beta-galactosidase activities of the lacZ-fused genes integrated on the chromosome and by intensities of the electrophoretic bands in crude tubulin fractions, however, were comparable, indicating that alpha 2 tubulin is not a minor subtype. We assume that the cells of Schizosaccharomyces pombe have no excess tubulin pool. alpha 1 mutants would then be blocked in the cell cycle because only half the amount of functional alpha-tubulin required for growth can be produced by the alpha 2 gene. On the other hand, the alpha 2-disrupted cells became viable because the synthesis of alpha 1 tubulin was increased by transcriptional or translational modulation or both. The real cause for essential alpha 1 and dispensable alpha 2 genes seems to be in their regulatory sequences instead of the coding sequences.

scholarly journals Unlinked noncomplementation: isolation of new conditional-lethal mutations in each of the tubulin genes of Saccharomyces cerevisiae.

Genetics ◽  
1988 ◽  
Vol 119 (2) ◽  
pp. 249-260
Author(s):  
T Stearns ◽  
D Botstein
Keyword(s):  
Saccharomyces Cerevisiae ◽  
Beta Tubulin ◽  
Alpha Tubulin ◽  
Tubulin Genes ◽  
Cycle Arrest ◽  
Allele Specific ◽  
Cold Sensitive ◽  
Lethal Allele ◽  
Encoding Gene ◽  
New Mutations

Abstract Mutations in genes of Saccharomyces cerevisiae that code for proteins that interact with beta-tubulin were sought by screening for unlinked mutations that fail to complement mutations in the single beta-tubulin-encoding gene (TUB2). Among the first three noncomplementing mutations examined, two are linked to TUB2 while one is unlinked. The unlinked mutation was shown to be a conditional-lethal allele of the major alpha-tubulin-encoding gene (TUB1) and represents the first such mutation in that gene. The tub1-1 mutation itself causes a cold-sensitive cell-cycle arrest, and confers supersensitivity to the antimicrotubule drug benomyl. These phenotypes occur in the presence of a wild-type copy of the minor alpha-tubulin-encoding gene, TUB3; the combination of tub1-1 and a tub3 null mutation is inviable in haploids. Through further application of this method, new mutations in TUB2 and TUB3 were isolated as unlinked noncomplementers of tub1-1. The noncomplementation between tub1 and tub2 mutations is gene specific and allele specific, suggesting that the phenotype is due to an interaction at the protein level. We conclude that isolation of unlinked noncomplementing mutations is likely to be a generally useful method for isolating mutations in interacting gene products.

Differential expressions of essential and nonessential alpha-tubulin genes in Schizosaccharomyces pombe

1986 ◽  
Vol 6 (6) ◽  
pp. 2168-2178
Author(s):  
Y Adachi ◽  
T Toda ◽  
O Niwa ◽  
M Yanagida
Keyword(s):  
Schizosaccharomyces Pombe ◽  
Gene Copy Number ◽  
Gene Copy ◽  
Temperature Sensitive ◽  
Regulatory Sequences ◽  
Tubulin Gene ◽  
Alpha Tubulin ◽  
Tubulin Genes ◽  
In The Wild ◽  
A Minor

The fission yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe has two alpha-tubulin genes and one beta-tubulin gene. Gene disruption experiments showed that the alpha 1-tubulin gene (NDA2) is essential whereas the alpha 2 gene is dispensable. The alpha 2-disrupted cells missing alpha 2 transcript and alpha 2 polypeptide could grow and sporulate normally. The alpha 2 gene, however, was expressed in the wild type and the alpha 1 mutant. Alpha 2-Tubulin was distinguished as an electrophoretic band and was assembled into microtubules. The alpha 2-disrupted cells had an increased sensitivity to an antimicrotubule drug thiabendazole, and the alpha 1(cold-sensitive [cs]) alpha 2 (disrupted) cells became not only cs but also temperature sensitive. Northern blot experiments indicated that alpha 2 transcription was minor and constitutive whereas alpha 1 transcription was major and modulated, depending on the gene copy number of the alpha 2 gene. The amounts of alpha 1 and alpha 2 polypeptides estimated by beta-galactosidase activities of the lacZ-fused genes integrated on the chromosome and by intensities of the electrophoretic bands in crude tubulin fractions, however, were comparable, indicating that alpha 2 tubulin is not a minor subtype. We assume that the cells of Schizosaccharomyces pombe have no excess tubulin pool. alpha 1 mutants would then be blocked in the cell cycle because only half the amount of functional alpha-tubulin required for growth can be produced by the alpha 2 gene. On the other hand, the alpha 2-disrupted cells became viable because the synthesis of alpha 1 tubulin was increased by transcriptional or translational modulation or both. The real cause for essential alpha 1 and dispensable alpha 2 genes seems to be in their regulatory sequences instead of the coding sequences.

Tandem arrangement of tubulin genes in the protozoan parasite Leishmania enriettii

1983 ◽  
Vol 3 (6) ◽  
pp. 1070-1076
Author(s):  
S M Landfear ◽  
D McMahon-Pratt ◽  
D F Wirth
Keyword(s):  
Tandem Repeat ◽  
Blot Hybridization ◽  
Protozoan Parasite ◽  
Southern Blot Hybridization ◽  
Beta Tubulin ◽  
Developmentally Regulated ◽  
Alpha Tubulin ◽  
Tubulin Genes ◽  
Southern Blot Hybridization Analysis ◽  
Leishmania Enriettii

The arrangement of developmentally regulated alpha- and beta-tubulin genes has been studied in the parasitic protozoan Leishmania enriettii by using Southern blot hybridization analysis. The alpha-tubulin genes occur in a tandem repeat whose monomeric unit may be represented by a 2-kilobase PstI fragment. Similarly, the beta-tubulin genes probably occur in a separate tandem repeat consisting of approximately 4-kilobase units unlinked to the alpha-tubulin repeats.

Dominant effects of tubulin overexpression in Saccharomyces cerevisiae

1989 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 1049-1059
Author(s):  
D Burke ◽  
P Gasdaska ◽  
L Hartwell
Keyword(s):  
Saccharomyces Cerevisiae ◽  
Chromosome Loss ◽  
Beta Tubulin ◽  
Alpha Tubulin ◽  
Inducible Promoters ◽  
Selective Degradation ◽  
Novel Structure ◽  
Genes Encoding ◽  
Transient Overexpression ◽  
Mutant Phenotypes

The consequences of altering the levels of alpha- and beta-tubulin in Saccharomyces cerevisiae were examined by constructing fusions of the structural genes encoding the tubulins to strong galactose-inducible promoters. Overexpression of beta-tubulin (TUB2) was lethal: cells arrested in the G2 stage of the cell cycle exhibited an increased frequency of chromosome loss, were devoid of microtubules, and accumulated beta-tubulin in a novel structure. Overexpression of the major alpha-tubulin gene (TUB1) was not lethal and did not affect chromosome segregation. The rate of alpha-tubulin mRNA and protein synthesis was increased, but the protein did not accumulate. Overexpression of both alpha- and beta-tubulin together resulted in arrested cell division, and cells accumulated excess tubules that contained both alpha- and beta-tubulin. Transient overexpression of both tubulins resulted in a high frequency of chromosome loss. These data suggest that strong selective pressure exists to prevent excess accumulation of microtubules or beta-tubulin and suggest a model by which this goal may be achieved by selective degradation of unassembled alpha-tubulin. Furthermore, the phenotype of beta-tubulin overexpression is similar to the phenotype of a beta-tubulin deficiency. These results add to a number of recent studies demonstrating that mutant phenotypes generated by overexpression can be informative about the function of the gene product.

scholarly journals Tandem arrangement of tubulin genes in the protozoan parasite Leishmania enriettii.

1983 ◽  
Vol 3 (6) ◽  
pp. 1070-1076 ◽  
Author(s):  
S M Landfear ◽  
D McMahon-Pratt ◽  
D F Wirth
Keyword(s):  
Tandem Repeat ◽  
Blot Hybridization ◽  
Protozoan Parasite ◽  
Southern Blot Hybridization ◽  
Beta Tubulin ◽  
Developmentally Regulated ◽  
Alpha Tubulin ◽  
Tubulin Genes ◽  
Southern Blot Hybridization Analysis ◽  
Leishmania Enriettii

The arrangement of developmentally regulated alpha- and beta-tubulin genes has been studied in the parasitic protozoan Leishmania enriettii by using Southern blot hybridization analysis. The alpha-tubulin genes occur in a tandem repeat whose monomeric unit may be represented by a 2-kilobase PstI fragment. Similarly, the beta-tubulin genes probably occur in a separate tandem repeat consisting of approximately 4-kilobase units unlinked to the alpha-tubulin repeats.

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