Author(s)

Reiko Furuta, Shusaku Imai, Yoshimitsu Kitaoka, Toshitsugu Ubisui, Yoshiko Minami

Department of Biochemistry, Faculty of Science, Okayama University of Science, Okayama, Japan.

Features of tectonin I and II expression in Physarum polycephalum cells were examined at both the protein and mRNA levels. Among the five cell cycle stages of P. polycephalum, the plasmodia, microplasmodia, and sclerotia contained both tectonin I and tectonin II; the spores did not contain any of these; and the amoebae contained tectonin I, but not tectonin II. When the mating of amoebae formed plasmodia, the mRNA and protein levels of tectonin II increased with the growth of zygotes. In the early stage of differentiation from plasmodia to spores, the mRNA levels of tectonins I and II decreased. Tectonins I and II were associated with the membrane fraction that precipitated at 200,000 ×g and could be released only by urea treat-ment of this fraction. Furthermore, when the fraction was digested with proteinase K, tectonin II completely disappeared. Immunofluoromicroscopy indicated that tectonins I and II exist in the lamellipodia of plasmo-dia.

Tectonin; Physarum polycephalum; WD Repeat

Furuta, R. , Imai, S. , Kitaoka, Y. , Ubisui, T. and Minami, Y. (2012) Characterization of tectonins I and II from Physarum polycephalum. Advances in Biological Chemistry, 2, 256-261. doi: 10.4236/abc.2012.23032.