ISSN:
1432-1432
Keywords:
Microtubules
;
Tubulin antibodies
;
Immunoblotting
;
Immunocytology
;
Auto-antibodies
;
Gene duplication
Source:
Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
Topics:
Biology
Notes:
Summary In spite of their overall evolutionary conservation, the tubulins of ciliates display electrophoretic and structural particularities. We show here that antibodies raised againstParamecium andTetrahymena ciliary tubulins fail to recognize the cytoplasmic tubulins of all the metazoans tested. Immunoblotting of peptide maps of ciliate tubulins reveals that these antibodies react with one or very few ciliate-specific epitopes, in contrast to polyclonal antibodies against vertebrate tubulins, which are equivalent to autoantibodies and recognize several epitopes in both ciliate and vertebrate tubulins. Furthermore, we show that the anti-ciliate antibodies recognize ciliary and flagellar tubulins of metazoans ranging from sea urchin to mammals (with the exception of humans). The results support the conclusion that although duplication and specialization of tubulin genes in metazoans may have led to distinct types of tubulins, the axonemal one has remained highly conserved.
Type of Medium:
Electronic Resource
URL:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/BF02099751
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