Identification of act2, an essential gene in the fission yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe that encodes a protein related to actin

Lees-Miller, J. P., Henry, G., Helfman, D. M. (January 1992) Identification of act2, an essential gene in the fission yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe that encodes a protein related to actin. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A, 89 (1). pp. 80-3. ISSN 0027-8424 (Print)0027-8424 (Linking)

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URL: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1729722

Abstract

Actins are a family of highly conserved proteins that are ubiquitously found among eukaryotic organisms. All actins that have previously been identified, including those of animals, plants, fungi, and protozoa, are 374-376 amino acids long and exhibit at least 70% amino acid sequence identity when compared with one another. We have cloned a gene from the fission yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe that encodes a distantly related member of the actin protein family, herein referred to as act2. In contrast to all other actins, the derived amino acid sequence reveals that act2 is 427 residues long and exhibits only 35-40% identity to actins, including act1 from Sch. pombe. Comparison to the known x-ray crystallographic structure of rabbit skeletal muscle actin indicates that the ATP and divalent metal ion binding sites are largely conserved in act2, while regions involved in actin-actin and actin-myosin interactions are relatively divergent. Disruption of the act2 gene demonstrated that this gene encodes a function essential for germination of haploid spores. These findings indicate that while act2 and act1 are related proteins, they appear to have distinct functions. In addition, they demonstrate that the actin protein family is more diverse than was previously thought.

Item Type: Paper
Uncontrolled Keywords: Actins/*genetics Amino Acid Sequence Base Sequence Cloning, Molecular DNA/genetics DNA, Fungal/genetics Fungal Proteins/genetics *Genes, Fungal Molecular Sequence Data Restriction Mapping Schizosaccharomyces/*genetics Sequence Alignment
Subjects: bioinformatics > genomics and proteomics > genetics & nucleic acid processing > protein structure, function, modification > protein types > actin
bioinformatics > genomics and proteomics > genetics & nucleic acid processing > DNA, RNA structure, function, modification > genes, structure and function
organism description > yeast
CSHL Authors:
Communities: CSHL labs > Helfman lab
Depositing User: Matt Covey
Date: 1 January 1992
Date Deposited: 22 Sep 2015 16:49
Last Modified: 09 Nov 2017 20:16
PMCID: PMC48179
Related URLs:
URI: https://repository.cshl.edu/id/eprint/31856

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