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Vol. 15, Issue 1, 142-150, January 2004

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The Caenorhabditis elegans Microtubule-severing Complex MEI-1/MEI-2 Katanin Interacts Differently with Two Superficially Redundant -Tubulin Isotypes

Chenggang Lu ^*, Martin Srayko ^* , and Paul E. Mains ^*  

^* Genes and Development Research Group, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, T2N 4N1 Canada; Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, T2N 4N1 Canada

Submitted June 18, 2003; Revised August 25, 2003; Accepted September 8, 2003
Monitoring Editor: Susan Strome

The microtubule-severing protein complex katanin is required for a variety of important microtubule-base morphological changes in both animals and plants. Caenorhabditis elegans katanin is encoded by the mei-1 and mei-2 genes and is required for oocyte meiotic spindle formation and must be inactivated before the first mitotic cleavage. We identified a mutation, sb26, in the tbb-2 -tubulin gene that partially inhibits MEI-1/MEI-2 activity: sb26 rescues lethality caused by ectopic MEI-1/MEI-2 expression during mitosis, and sb26 increases meiotic defects in a genetic background where MEI-1/MEI-2 activity is lower than normal. sb26 does not interfere with MEI-1/MEI-2 microtubule localization, suggesting that this mutation likely interferes with severing. Tubulin deletion alleles and RNA-mediated interference revealed that TBB-2 and the other germline enriched -tubulin isotype, TBB-1, are redundant for embryonic viability. However, limiting MEI-1/MEI-2 activity in these experiments revealed that MEI-1/MEI-2 preferentially interacts with TBB-2–containing microtubules. Our results demonstrate that these two superficially redundant -tubulin isotypes have functionally distinct roles in vivo.

Abbreviations used: gf, gain-of-function; lf, loss-of-function.

Present address: Max-Planck-Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics, Pfotenhauerstrasse 108, D-01307 Dresden, Germany.

Corresponding author. E-mail address: mains{at}ucalgary.ca.

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