Altered activity, social behavior, and spatial memory in mice lacking the NTAN1p amidase and the asparagine branch of the N-end rule pathway

The N-end rule relates the in vivo half-life of a protein to the identity of its N-terminal residue. N-terminal asparagine and glutamine are tertiary destabilizing residues, in that they are enzymatically deamidated to yield secondary destabilizing residues aspartate and glutamate, which are conjugated to arginine, a primary destabilizing residue. N-terminal arginine of a substrate protein is bound by the Ubr1-encoded E3alpha, the E3 component of the ubiquitin-proteasome-dependent N-end rule pathway. We describe the construction and analysis of mouse strains lacking the asparagine-specific N-terminal amidase (Nt(N)-amidase), encoded by the Ntan1 gene. In wild-type embryos, Ntan1 was strongly expressed in the branchial arches and in the tail and limb buds. The Ntan1(-/-) mouse strains lacked the Nt(N)-amidase activity but retained glutamine-specific Nt(Q)-amidase, indicating that the two enzymes are encoded by different genes. Among the normally short-lived N-end rule substrates, only those bearing N-terminal asparagine became long-lived in Ntan1(-/-) fibroblasts. The Ntan1(-/-) mice were fertile and outwardly normal but differed from their congenic wild-type counterparts in spontaneous activity, spatial memory, and a socially conditioned exploratory phenotype that has not been previously described with other mouse strains.

Alternative splicing results in differential expression, activity, and localization of the two forms of arginyl-tRNA-protein transferase, a component of the N-end rule pathway

The N-end rule relates the in vivo half-life of a protein to the identity of its N-terminal residue. The underlying ubiquitin-dependent proteolytic system, called the N-end rule pathway, is organized hierarchically: N-terminal aspartate and glutamate (and also cysteine in metazoans) are secondary destabilizing residues, in that they function through their conjugation, by arginyl-tRNA-protein transferase (R-transferase), to arginine, a primary destabilizing residue. We isolated cDNA encoding the 516-residue mouse R-transferase, ATE1p, and found two species, termed Ate1-1 and Ate1-2. The Ate1 mRNAs are produced through a most unusual alternative splicing that retains one or the other of the two homologous 129-bp exons, which are adjacent in the mouse Ate1 gene. Human ATE1 also contains the alternative 129-bp exons, whereas the plant (Arabidopsis thaliana) and fly (Drosophila melanogaster) Ate1 genes encode a single form of ATE1p. A fusion of ATE1-1p with green fluorescent protein (GFP) is present in both the nucleus and the cytosol, whereas ATE1-2p-GFP is exclusively cytosolic. Mouse ATE1-1p and ATE1-2p were examined by expressing them in ate1Delta Saccharomyces cerevisiae in the presence of test substrates that included Asp-betagal (beta-galactosidase) and Cys-betagal. Both forms of the mouse R-transferase conferred instability on Asp-betagal (but not on Cys-betagal) through the arginylation of its N-terminal Asp, the ATE1-1p enzyme being more active than ATE1-2p. The ratio of Ate1-1 to Ate1-2 mRNA varies greatly among the mouse tissues; it is approximately 0.1 in the skeletal muscle, approximately 0.25 in the spleen, approximately 3.3 in the liver and brain, and approximately 10 in the testis, suggesting that the two R-transferases are functionally distinct.

A bipolar kinesin

Chromosome segregation during mitosis depends on the action of the mitotic spindle, a self-organizing, bipolar protein machine which uses microtubules (MTs) and their associated motors. Members of the BimC subfamily of kinesin-related MT-motor proteins are believed to be essential for the formation and functioning of a normal bipolar spindle. Here we report that KRP130, a homotetrameric BimC-related kinesin purified from Drosophila melanogaster embryos, has an unusual ultrastructure. It consists of four kinesin-related polypeptides assembled into a bipolar aggregate with motor domains at opposite ends, analogous to a miniature myosin filament. Such a bipolar 'minifilament' could crosslink spindle MTs and slide them relative to one another. We do not know of any other MT motors that have a bipolar structure.

HSP70-related 65 kDa protein of beet yellows closterovirus is a microtubule-binding protein

Beet yellows virus (BYV) genome encodes a 65 kDa protein homologous to the HSP70 family of cellular heat-shock proteins (Agranovsky, A.A., Boyko, V.P., Karasev, A.V., Koonin, E.V. and Dolja, V.V. (1991) J. Mol. Biol. 217, 603-610). The respective gene was cloned and expressed in vitro yielding a product of the expected size (p65). This product was found to bind to the purified microtubules with a binding constant of 4 x 10(-7) M. The binding of p65 was stimulated if ATP presented in the translation mixture was hydrolyzed by apyrase. Removal of the short C-terminal domains of alpha- and beta-tubulin by subtilisin digestion abolished the binding, demonstrating its specificity. The possible role of p65 association with microtubules in the movement of virus within and/or between plant cells is proposed.

Microtubule-associated proteins and microtubule-based translocators have different binding sites on tubulin molecule

It has been previously shown that a class of microtubule proteins, the so-called microtubule-associated proteins (MAPs), binds to the C-terminal part of tubulin subunits. We show here that microtubules composed of tubulin whose 4-kDa C-terminal domain was cleaved by subtilisin (S-microtubules) are unable to bind MAPs but can still bind the anterograde translocator protein kinesin and the retrograde translocator dynein. Binding of both motors to S-microtubules, like their binding to normal microtubules, was ATP-dependent. In addition, direct competition experiments showed that binding sites for kiensin and MAPs on the microtubule surface lattice do not overlap. Furthermore, S-microtubules stimulated the ATPase activity of kinesin at least 8-fold, and the affinities of kinesin for control and S-microtubules were identical. S-microtubules were able to glide along kinesin-coated coverslips at a rate of 0.2 microns/s, the same rate as control microtubules. We conclude, that unlike MAPs, kinesin and cytoplasmic dynein bind to the tubulin molecule outside the C-terminal region.