Rat brain microtubule protein: purification and determination of covalently bound phosphate and carbohydrate

Isolation and partial characterization of alpha and beta-tubulin from outer doublets of sea-urchin sperm and microtubules of chick-embryo brain

Two kinds of tubulin (alpha and beta) have been described in microtubules from many different systems. In this study a discontinuous acrylamide-gel system containing sodium dodecyl sulfate was used to separate milligram quantities of alpha- and beta-tubulin from microtubules of chick-embryo brain and from outer doublets of sea-urchin sperm. The isolated tubulins were characterized by peptide mapping and automated sequencing of the first 25 NH(2)-terminal amino acids. Our results show that alpha- and beta-tubulin are related but distinctly different proteins and that each one has been highly conserved in the course of evolution.

The mechanism of action of colchicine. Colchicine binding properties of sea urchin sperm tail outer doublet tubulin

The thermal depolymerization procedure of Stephens (1970. J. Mol. Biol. 47:353) has been employed for solubilization of Strongylocentrotus purpuratus sperm tail outer doublet microtubules with the use of a buffer during solubilization which is of optimal pH and ionic strength for the preservation of colchicine binding activity of chick embryo brain tubulin. Colchicine binding values were corrected for first-order decay during heat solubilization at 50 degrees C (t((1/2)) = 5.4 min) and incubation with colchicine at 37 degrees C in the presence of vinblastine sulfate (t((1/2)) = 485 min). The colchicine binding properties of heat-solubilized outer doublet tubulin were qualitatively identical with those of other soluble forms of tubulin. The solubilized tubulin (mol wt, 115,000) bound 0.9 +/- 0.2 mol of colchicine per mol of tubulin, with a binding constant of 6.3 x 10(5) liters/mol at 37 degrees C. The colchicine binding reaction was both time and temperature dependent, and the binding of colchicine was prevented in a competitive manner by podophyllotoxin (K(i) = 1.3 x 10(-6) M). The first-order decay of colchicine binding activity was substantially decreased by the addition of the vinca alkaloids, vinblastine sulfate or vincristine sulfate, thus demonstrating the presence of a vinca alkaloid binding site(s) on the outer doublet tubulin. Tubulin contained within the assembled microtubules did not decay. Intact outer doublet microtubules bound less than 0.001 mol of colchicine per mol of tubulin contained in the microtubules, under conditions where soluble tubulin would have bound 1 mol of colchicine per mol of tubulin (saturating concentration of colchicine, no decay of colchicine binding activity). The presence of colchicine had no effect on the rate of solubilization of outer doublet microtubules during incubation at 37 degrees C. Therefore, the colchicine binding site on tubulin is blocked (not available to bind colchicine) when the tubulin is in the assembled outer doublet microtubules.

The association between phosphatidylinositol phosphodiesterase activity and a specific subunit of microtubular protein in rat brain

1. Supernatant proteins from rat brain were separated into two fractions containing phosphatidylinositol phosphodiesterase activity by chromatography on DEAE-Sephadex A-50. 2. The first fraction sediments in linear sucrose density gradients in two bands corresponding to molecular weights of 66000 and 36000. There was presumptive evidence that the lighter protein constituted the monomeric form of the enzyme. The second fraction sediments predominantly as a single protein of molecular weight 86000. 3. Treatment of rat brain supernatant with [(3)H]colchicine abolished the second DEAE-Sephadex peak and removed the lighter protein from the first peak. These proteins emerged in the same position as the protein binding [(3)H]colchicine at high salt concentration; phospholipase activity was recovered from linear sucrose density gradients in positions corresponding to molecular weights 88000 and 43000, together with an aggregate of molecular weight 140000. Electrophoresis on sodium dodecyl sulphate-urea-polyacrylamide gels of this fraction revealed only three proteins: the alpha and beta-subunits of microtubular protein, of molecular weights 56000 and 52000 respectively, and a protein of molecular weight 38000. 4. A sample of microtubular protein from mouse, labelled in vivo with [(3)H]proline and (32)P(i), was added to rat brain supernatant together with an equal amount of the same microtubular protein treated with cyclic AMP and [gamma-(32)P]ATP and the mixture subsequently characterized by ion-exchange chromatography. Some phospholipase activity characteristic of the second peak from DEAE-Sephadex was associated with one fraction of added microtubular protein. This fraction was identified on the basis of the (3)H:(32)P ratio as the beta subunit of the protein treated with ATP and cyclic AMP. The subunit of added microtubular protein untreated with nucleotides was not associated with phospholipase activity.

Adenosine 3',5'-cyclic monophosphate in Chlamydomonas reinhardtii. Influence on flagellar function and regeneration

Adenosine 3',5'-cyclic monophosphate (cAMP) influences both flagellar function and flagellar regeneration in Chlamydomonas reinhardtii. The methylxanthine, aminophylline, which can cause a tenfold increase in cAMP level in C. reinhardtii, inhibits flagellar movement and flagellar regeneration by wild-type cells, without inhibiting cell multiplication. Caffeine, a closely related inhibitor, also inhibits flagellar movement and regeneration, but it inhibits cell multiplication too. Regeneration by a mutant lacking the central pair of flagellar microtubules was found to be more sensitive than wild type to inhibition by caffeine and to be subject to synergistic inhibition by aminophylline plus dibutyryl cAMP. Regeneration by three out of seven mutants with different flagellar abnormalities was more sensitive than wild type to these inhibitors. We interpret these results to mean that cAMP affects a component of the flagellum directly or indirectly, and that the responsiveness of that component to cAMP is enhanced by mutations which affect the integrity of the flagellum. The component in question could be microtubule protein.