Brierley H L, Webster P, Long S R
Department of Biological Sciences, Stanford University, CA 94305-5020, USA.
Plant Mol Biol. 1995 Feb;27(4):715-27. doi: 10.1007/BF00020225.
alpha- and beta-tubulin proteins are subunits of microtubules, which as primary elements of the plant cytoskeleton play major roles in plant cell division and cell morphogenesis. Several higher-plant alpha- and beta-tubulin gene families have been reported to have at least six to nine members each. Using genomic Southern hybridizations and polymerase chain reaction (PCR) experiments, we have found that the Pisum sativum (garden pea) genome has only four copies of alpha-tubulin sequences and a similar number of beta-tubulin sequences. We have characterized the pea alpha-tubulin gene TubA1. Its nucleotide sequence predicts a 452 amino acid product which is 89-98% identical to those predicted for other plant alpha-tubulins. By S1 nuclease analysis we have located the transcript start site at 102 bases upstream of the ATG. We have also shown that the TubA1 gene is expressed by northern hybridization with a gene-specific probe.
α-微管蛋白和β-微管蛋白是微管的亚基，而微管作为植物细胞骨架的主要成分，在植物细胞分裂和细胞形态发生中起主要作用。据报道，几个高等植物的α-微管蛋白和β-微管蛋白基因家族各自至少有6至9个成员。通过基因组Southern杂交和聚合酶链反应（PCR）实验，我们发现豌豆（Pisum sativum）基因组只有4个α-微管蛋白序列拷贝和数量相近的β-微管蛋白序列拷贝。我们对豌豆α-微管蛋白基因TubA1进行了特征分析。其核苷酸序列预测出一个452个氨基酸的产物，该产物与其他植物α-微管蛋白预测的产物有89 - 98%的同源性。通过S1核酸酶分析，我们将转录起始位点定位在ATG上游102个碱基处。我们还通过与基因特异性探针的Northern杂交表明TubA1基因是表达的。
