scholarly journals Temperature affects the repeatability of evolution in the microbial eukaryote Tetrahymena thermophila

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jason Tarkington ◽  
Rebecca A. Zufall
Keyword(s):  
Tetrahymena Thermophila ◽  
Microbial Eukaryote

scholarly journals Functional proteomics protocol for the identification of interaction partners in Tetrahymena thermophila

2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 100362
Author(s):  
Syed Nabeel-Shah ◽  
Jyoti Garg ◽  
Pata-Eting Kougnassoukou Tchara ◽  
Ronald E. Pearlman ◽  
Jean-Philippe Lambert ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Tetrahymena Thermophila ◽  
Functional Proteomics ◽  
Interaction Partners

scholarly journals Autonomously Replicating Macronuclear DNA Pieces Are the Physical Basis of Genetic Coassortment Groups in Tetrahymena thermophila

Genetics ◽  
2000 ◽  
Vol 155 (3) ◽  
pp. 1119-1125
Author(s):  
Laura Wong ◽  
Lana Klionsky ◽  
Steve Wickert ◽  
Virginia Merriam ◽  
Eduardo Orias ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Random Distribution ◽  
Tetrahymena Thermophila ◽  
Physical Basis ◽  
The Other ◽  
Site Specific ◽  
Phenotypic Assortment ◽  
Somatic Genome

Abstract The macronucleus of the ciliate Tetrahymena thermophila contains a fragmented somatic genome consisting of several hundred identifiable chromosome pieces. These pieces are generated by site-specific fragmentation of the germline chromosomes and most of them are represented at an average of 45 copies per macronucleus. In the course of successive divisions of an initially heterozygous macronucleus, the random distribution of alleles of loci carried on these copies eventually generates macronuclei that are pure for one allele or the other. This phenomenon is called phenotypic assortment. We have previously reported the existence of loci that assort together (coassort) and hypothesized that these loci reside on the same macronuclear piece. The work reported here provides new, rigorous genetic support for the hypothesis that macronuclear autonomously replicating chromosome pieces are the physical basis of coassortment groups. Thus, coassortment allows the mapping of the somatic genome by purely genetic means. The data also strongly suggest that the random distribution of alleles in the Tetrahymena macronucleus is due to the random distribution of the MAC chromosome pieces that carry them.

Micronuclear DNA sequences from Tetrahymena do not confer mitotic stability on ARS plasmids in Saccharomyces

Genome ◽  
1988 ◽  
Vol 30 (5) ◽  
pp. 690-696 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wendy H. Horsfall ◽  
Ronald E. Pearlman
Keyword(s):  
Saccharomyces Cerevisiae ◽  
Dna Sequences ◽  
Copy Number ◽  
Tetrahymena Thermophila ◽  
Assay System ◽  
Mitotic Stability ◽  
Yeast Saccharomyces Cerevisiae ◽  
Genomic Libraries ◽  
Ade2 Gene

Genomic libraries containing micronuclear DNA sequences from Tetrahymena thermophila have been constructed in a vector containing ARS1, SUP11, and ura3 sequences from the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae. When transformed into a strain of S. cerevisiae carrying a suppressible ochre mutation in the ade2 gene, viable transformants are obtained only if the transforming plasmid is maintained at a copy number of one or two per cell. Mitotic segregation of the plasmid is easily assessed in a colour assay of transformants. Using this assay system, we showed that micronuclear DNA from Tetrahymena does not contain sequences that confer mitotic stability on yeast ARS-containing plasmids; i.e., sequences that function analogously to yeast centromere sequences. One transformant was analyzed that carries Tetrahymena sequences that maintain the copy number of the ARS plasmid at one or two per cell. However, these sequences do not confer mitotic stability on the transformants and they confer a phenotype in this assay similar to that of the REP3 gene of the yeast 2 μm plasmid.Key words: mitotic stability, centromere, Tetrahymena, Saccharomyces.

scholarly journals Replication of an rRNA gene origin plasmid in the Tetrahymena thermophila macronucleus is prevented by transcription through the origin from an RNA polymerase I promoter.

1995 ◽  
Vol 15 (6) ◽  
pp. 3372-3381 ◽  
Author(s):  
W J Pan ◽  
R C Gallagher ◽  
E H Blackburn
Keyword(s):  
Rna Polymerase ◽  
Tetrahymena Thermophila ◽  
Rna Polymerase I ◽  
Rrna Gene ◽  
Wild Type ◽  
Independent Evidence ◽  
Origin Region ◽  
Origin Function ◽  
Polymerase I ◽  
Wild Type Promoter

In the somatic macronucleus of the ciliate Tetrahymena thermophila, the palindromic rRNA gene (rDNA) minichromosome is replicated from an origin near the center of the molecule in the 5' nontranscribed spacer. The replication of this rDNA minichromosome is under both cell cycle and copy number control. We addressed the effect on origin function of transcription through this origin region. A construct containing a pair of 1.9-kb tandem direct repeats of the rDNA origin region, containing the origin plus a mutated (+G), but not a wild type, rRNA promoter, is initially maintained in macronuclei as an episome. Late, linear and circular replicons with long arrays of tandem repeats accumulate (W.-J. Pan and E. H. Blackburn, Nucleic Acids Res, in press). We present direct evidence that the +G mutation inactivates this rRNA promoter. It lacks the footprint seen on the wild-type promoter and produces no detectable in vivo transcript. Independent evidence that the failure to maintain wild-type 1.9-kb repeats was caused by transcription through the origin came from placing a short DNA segment containing the rRNA gene transcriptional termination region immediately downstream of the wild-type rRNA promoter. Insertion of this terminator sequence in the correct, but not the inverted, orientation restored plasmid maintenance. Hence, origin function was restored by inactivating the rRNA promoter through the +G mutation or causing termination before transcripts from a wild-type promoter reached the origin region. We propose that transcription by RNA polymerase I through the rDNA origin inhibits replication by preventing replication factors from assembling at the origin.

scholarly journals Secretion of Polypeptide Crystals from Tetrahymena thermophila Secretory Organelles (Mucocysts) Depends on Processing by a Cysteine Cathepsin, Cth4p

2015 ◽  
Vol 14 (8) ◽  
pp. 817-833 ◽  
Author(s):  
Santosh Kumar ◽  
Joseph S. Briguglio ◽  
Aaron P. Turkewitz
Keyword(s):  
Tetrahymena Thermophila ◽  
Secretory Granules ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Sequential Processing ◽  
Cysteine Cathepsin ◽  
Endoproteolytic Cleavage ◽  
Extracellular Stimuli ◽  
Peptide Secretion ◽  
Processing Steps

ABSTRACT In many organisms, sophisticated mechanisms facilitate release of peptides in response to extracellular stimuli. In the ciliate Tetrahymena thermophila , efficient peptide secretion depends on specialized vesicles called mucocysts that contain dense crystalline cores that expand rapidly during exocytosis. Core assembly depends of endoproteolytic cleavage of mucocyst proproteins by an aspartyl protease, cathepsin 3 ( CTH3 ). Here, we show that a second enzyme identified by expression profiling, Cth4p, is also required for processing of proGrl proteins and for assembly of functional mucocysts. Cth4p is a cysteine cathepsin that localizes partially to endolysosomal structures and appears to act downstream of, and may be activated by, Cth3p. Disruption of CTH4 results in cells (Δ cth4 ) that show aberrant trimming of Grl proproteins, as well as grossly aberrant mucocyst exocytosis. Surprisingly, Δ cth4 cells succeed in assembling crystalline mucocyst cores. However, those cores do not undergo normal directional expansion during exocytosis, and they thus fail to efficiently extrude from the cells. We could phenocopy the Δ cth4 defects by mutating conserved catalytic residues, indicating that the in vivo function of Cth4p is enzymatic. Our results indicate that as for canonical proteins packaged in animal secretory granules, the maturation of mucocyst proproteins involves sequential processing steps. The Δ cth4 defects uncouple, in an unanticipated way, the assembly of mucocyst cores and their subsequent expansion and thereby reveal a previously unsuspected aspect of polypeptide secretion in ciliates.

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