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The actin multigene family of Paramecium tetraurelia
BACKGROUND: A Paramecium tetraurelia pilot genome project, the subsequent sequencing of a Megabase chromosome as well as the Paramecium genome project aimed at gaining insight into the genome of Paramecium. These cells display a most elaborate membrane trafficking system, with distinct, predictable...
Autores principales: | , , , , , |
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Formato: | Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
BioMed Central
2007
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1852557/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17391512 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1471-2164-8-82 |
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author | Sehring, Ivonne M Mansfeld, Jörg Reiner, Christoph Wagner, Erika Plattner, Helmut Kissmehl, Roland |
author_facet | Sehring, Ivonne M Mansfeld, Jörg Reiner, Christoph Wagner, Erika Plattner, Helmut Kissmehl, Roland |
author_sort | Sehring, Ivonne M |
collection | PubMed |
description | BACKGROUND: A Paramecium tetraurelia pilot genome project, the subsequent sequencing of a Megabase chromosome as well as the Paramecium genome project aimed at gaining insight into the genome of Paramecium. These cells display a most elaborate membrane trafficking system, with distinct, predictable pathways in which actin could participate. Previously we had localized actin in Paramecium; however, none of the efforts so far could proof the occurrence of actin in the cleavage furrow of a dividing cell, despite the fact that actin is unequivocally involved in cell division. This gave a first hint that Paramecium may possess actin isoforms with unusual characteristics. The genome project gave us the chance to search the whole Paramecium genome, and, thus, to identify and characterize probably all actin isoforms in Paramecium. RESULTS: The ciliated protozoan, P. tetraurelia, contains an actin multigene family with at least 30 members encoding actin, actin-related and actin-like proteins. They group into twelve subfamilies; a large subfamily with 10 genes, seven pairs and one trio with > 82% amino acid identity, as well as three single genes. The different subfamilies are very distinct from each other. In comparison to actins in other organisms, P. tetraurelia actins are highly divergent, with identities topping 80% and falling to 30%. We analyzed their structure on nucleotide level regarding the number and position of introns. On amino acid level, we scanned the sequences for the presence of actin consensus regions, for amino acids of the intermonomer interface in filaments, for residues contributing to ATP binding, and for known binding sites for myosin and actin-specific drugs. Several of those characteristics are lacking in several subfamilies. The divergence of P. tetraurelia actins and actin-related proteins between different P. tetraurelia subfamilies as well as with sequences of other organisms is well represented in a phylogenetic tree, where P. tetraurelia sequences only partially cluster. CONCLUSION: Analysis of different features on nucleotide and amino acid level revealed striking differences in isoforms of actin and actin-related proteins in P. tetraurelia, both within the organism and in comparison to other organisms. This diversification suggests unprecedented specification in localization and function within a unicellular eukaryote. |
format | Text |
id | pubmed-1852557 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2007 |
publisher | BioMed Central |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-18525572007-04-18 The actin multigene family of Paramecium tetraurelia Sehring, Ivonne M Mansfeld, Jörg Reiner, Christoph Wagner, Erika Plattner, Helmut Kissmehl, Roland BMC Genomics Research Article BACKGROUND: A Paramecium tetraurelia pilot genome project, the subsequent sequencing of a Megabase chromosome as well as the Paramecium genome project aimed at gaining insight into the genome of Paramecium. These cells display a most elaborate membrane trafficking system, with distinct, predictable pathways in which actin could participate. Previously we had localized actin in Paramecium; however, none of the efforts so far could proof the occurrence of actin in the cleavage furrow of a dividing cell, despite the fact that actin is unequivocally involved in cell division. This gave a first hint that Paramecium may possess actin isoforms with unusual characteristics. The genome project gave us the chance to search the whole Paramecium genome, and, thus, to identify and characterize probably all actin isoforms in Paramecium. RESULTS: The ciliated protozoan, P. tetraurelia, contains an actin multigene family with at least 30 members encoding actin, actin-related and actin-like proteins. They group into twelve subfamilies; a large subfamily with 10 genes, seven pairs and one trio with > 82% amino acid identity, as well as three single genes. The different subfamilies are very distinct from each other. In comparison to actins in other organisms, P. tetraurelia actins are highly divergent, with identities topping 80% and falling to 30%. We analyzed their structure on nucleotide level regarding the number and position of introns. On amino acid level, we scanned the sequences for the presence of actin consensus regions, for amino acids of the intermonomer interface in filaments, for residues contributing to ATP binding, and for known binding sites for myosin and actin-specific drugs. Several of those characteristics are lacking in several subfamilies. The divergence of P. tetraurelia actins and actin-related proteins between different P. tetraurelia subfamilies as well as with sequences of other organisms is well represented in a phylogenetic tree, where P. tetraurelia sequences only partially cluster. CONCLUSION: Analysis of different features on nucleotide and amino acid level revealed striking differences in isoforms of actin and actin-related proteins in P. tetraurelia, both within the organism and in comparison to other organisms. This diversification suggests unprecedented specification in localization and function within a unicellular eukaryote. BioMed Central 2007-03-28 /pmc/articles/PMC1852557/ /pubmed/17391512 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1471-2164-8-82 Text en Copyright © 2007 Sehring et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0 This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License ( (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0) ), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. |
spellingShingle | Research Article Sehring, Ivonne M Mansfeld, Jörg Reiner, Christoph Wagner, Erika Plattner, Helmut Kissmehl, Roland The actin multigene family of Paramecium tetraurelia |
title | The actin multigene family of Paramecium tetraurelia |
title_full | The actin multigene family of Paramecium tetraurelia |
title_fullStr | The actin multigene family of Paramecium tetraurelia |
title_full_unstemmed | The actin multigene family of Paramecium tetraurelia |
title_short | The actin multigene family of Paramecium tetraurelia |
title_sort | actin multigene family of paramecium tetraurelia |
topic | Research Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1852557/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17391512 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1471-2164-8-82 |
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