Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

A Novel Family of Unconventional Actins in Volvocalean Algae

  • Published:
Journal of Molecular Evolution Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

The unicellular green alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii has two actin genes, one encoding a conventional actin (90% amino acid identity with mammalian actin), the other a highly divergent actin (64% identity) named novel actin-like protein (NAP). To see whether the presence of conventional and unconventional actins in a single organism is unique to C. reinhardtii, we searched for genomic sequences related to the NAP sequence in several other species of volvocalean algae. Here we show that Chlamydomonas moewusii and Volvox carteri also have, in addition to a conventional actin, an unconventional actin similar to the C. reinhardtii NAP. Analyses of the deduced protein sequences indicated that the NAP homologues form a distinct group derived from conventional actin.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Figure 1
Figure 2
Figure 3
Figure 4

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. J Adachi M Hasegawa (1996) ArticleTitleMOLPHY, version 2.3; Programs for molecular phylogenetics based on maximum likelihood. Comput Sci Monogr 28 1–150

    Google Scholar 

  2. T Cavalier-Smith (1992) ArticleTitleThe number of symbiotic origins of organelles. Biosystems 28 91–106 Occurrence Handle10.1016/0303-2647(92)90011-M Occurrence Handle1:STN:280:ByyC1cvhvFw%3D Occurrence Handle1292670

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  3. B Cresnar W Mages K Muller JM Salbaum R Schmitt (1990) ArticleTitleStructure and expression of a single actin gene in Volvox carteri. Curr Genet 18 337–346 Occurrence Handle1:CAS:528:DyaK3MXltVOgtbw%3D Occurrence Handle2253273

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  4. M Erata (2000) GEF list of strains 2000 Microalgae and protozoa. Global Environmental Forum Tokyo

    Google Scholar 

  5. J Felsenstein (1997) PHYLIP manual, version 3.5c. Department of Genetics. University of Washington Seattle

    Google Scholar 

  6. HV Goodson WF Hawse (2000) ArticleTitleMolecular evolution of the actin family. J Cell Sci 115 2619–2622 Occurrence Handle1:STN:280:DC%2BD383js1yqug%3D%3D Occurrence Handle11975348

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  7. DS Gorman RP Levine (1965) ArticleTitleCytochrome f and plastocyanin: Their sequence in the photosynthetic electron transport chain of Chlamydomonas reinhardtii. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 54 1665–1669 Occurrence Handle1:CAS:528:DyaF28XmtFGjtw%3D%3D Occurrence Handle4379719

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  8. D Hepperle H Nozaki S Hohenberger VA Huss E Morita L Krienitz (1998) ArticleTitlePhylogenetic position of the Phacotaceae within the Chlamydophyceae as revealed by analysis of 18S rDNA and rbcL sequences. J Mol Evol 47 420–430 Occurrence Handle1:CAS:528:DyaK1cXms1WlsLs%3D Occurrence Handle9767687

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  9. M Hirono S Uryu A Ohara T Kato-Minoura R Kamiya (2003) ArticleTitleExpression of conventional and unconventional actins in Chlamydomonas reinhardtii upon deflagellation and sexual adhesion. Euk Cell

    Google Scholar 

  10. Y Ina (1995) ArticleTitleNew methods for estimating the numbers of synonymous and nonsynonymous substitutions. J Mol Evol 40 190–226 Occurrence Handle1:CAS:528:DyaK2MXjsVyksbg%3D Occurrence Handle7699723

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  11. DT Jones WR Taylor JM Thornton D Hepperle H Nozaki S Hohenberger VA Huss E Morita L Krienitz (1992) ArticleTitleThe rapid generation of mutation data matrices from protein sequences. Comput Appl Biosci 8 275–282 Occurrence Handle1:CAS:528:DyaK38Xlt1Okt7w%3D Occurrence Handle1633570

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  12. T Kato O Kagami T Yagi R Kamiya (1993) ArticleTitleIsolation of two species of Chlamydomonas reinhardtii flagellar mutants, ida5 and ida6, that lack a newly identified heavy chain of the inner dynein arm. Cell Struct Funct 18 371–377 Occurrence Handle1:CAS:528:DyaK2cXlsFeju7o%3D Occurrence Handle8033218

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  13. T Kato-Minoura M Hirono R Kamiya (1997) ArticleTitle Chlamydomonas inner-arm dynein mutant, ida5, has a mutation in an actin-encoding gene. J Cell Biol 137 649–656 Occurrence Handle10.1083/jcb.137.3.649 Occurrence Handle1:CAS:528:DyaK2sXjtVOiur0%3D Occurrence Handle9151671

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  14. T Kato-Minoura S Uryu M Hirono R Kamiya (1998) ArticleTitleHighly divergent actin expressed in a Chlamydomonas mutant lacking the conventional actin gene. Biochem Biophys Res Commun 251 71–76 Occurrence Handle10.1006/bbrc.1998.9373 Occurrence Handle1:CAS:528:DyaK1cXmvFKisLY%3D Occurrence Handle9790909

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  15. DL Kirk MM Kirk (1983) ArticleTitleProtein synthetic patterns during the asexual life cycle of Volvox carteri. Dev Biol 96 493–506 Occurrence Handle1:CAS:528:DyaL3sXhsFOltLg%3D Occurrence Handle6832480

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  16. A Larson MM Kirk DL Kirk (1992) ArticleTitleMolecular phylogeny of the volvocine flagellates. Mol Biol Evol 9 85–105 Occurrence Handle1:CAS:528:DyaK38XotVeksQ%3D%3D Occurrence Handle1552843

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  17. VD Lee SL Finstad B Huang (1997) ArticleTitleCloning and characterization of a gene encoding an actin-related protein in Chlamydomonas. Gene 197 153–159 Occurrence Handle10.1016/S0378-1119(97)00254-0 Occurrence Handle1:CAS:528:DyaK2sXlsFGmsrY%3D Occurrence Handle9332361

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  18. SM Miller R Schmitt DL Kirk (1993) ArticleTitle Jordan, an active Volvox transposable element similar to higher plant transposons. Plant Cell 5 1125–1138

    Google Scholar 

  19. G Piperno DJL Luck (1979) ArticleTitleAn actin-like protein is a component of axonemes from Chlamydomonas flagella. J Biol Chem 254 2187–2190 Occurrence Handle1:CAS:528:DyaE1MXhvFyqu7s%3D Occurrence Handle429278

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  20. DA Schafer TA Schroer (1999) ArticleTitleActin-related proteins. Annu Rev Cell Dev Biol 15 341–363 Occurrence Handle10.1146/annurev.cellbio.15.1.341 Occurrence Handle1:CAS:528:DC%2BD3cXhtVSnurg%3D Occurrence Handle10611965

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  21. P Sheterline J Clayton J Sparrow (1996) Actins (3rd ed). Academic Press San Diego

    Google Scholar 

  22. TB Stibitz PJ Keeling D Bhattacharya (2000) ArticleTitleSymbiotic origin of a novel actin gene in the cryptophyte Pyrenomonas helgolandii. Mol Biol Evol 17 1731–1738 Occurrence Handle1:CAS:528:DC%2BD3cXnvFyqt7w%3D Occurrence Handle11070060

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  23. Y Sugase M Hirono KL Kindle R Kamiya (1996) ArticleTitleCloning and characterization of the actin-encoding gene of Chlamydomonas reinhardtii. Gene (Amst.) 168 117–121 Occurrence Handle10.1016/0378-1119(95)00711-3 Occurrence Handle1:CAS:528:DyaK28XhtlWnsr4%3D

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  24. JD Thompson DG Higgins TJ Gibson (1994) ArticleTitleCLUSTAL W: Improving the sensitivity of progressive multiple sequence alignment through sequence weighting, position-specific gap penalties and weight matrix choice. Nucleic Acids Res 22 4673–4680 Occurrence Handle7984417

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  25. K Weber W Kabsch (1994) ArticleTitleIntron positions in actin genes seem unrelated to the secondary structure of the protein. EMBO J 13 1280–1286 Occurrence Handle1:CAS:528:DyaK2cXktVems74%3D Occurrence Handle8137812

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  26. DP Weeks N Beerman OM Griffith (1986) ArticleTitleA small-scale five-hour procedure for isolating multiple samples of CsCl-purified DNA: Application to isolations from mammalian, insect, higher plant, algal, yeast, and bacterial sources. Anal Biochem 152 376–385 Occurrence Handle1:CAS:528:DyaL28XosVOmsA%3D%3D Occurrence Handle3963370

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

We acknowledge Drs. Tomoaki Nishiyama and Mitsuyasu Hasebe (National Institute for Basic Biology) for their kind help in the phylogenetic analyses and Drs. Takeshi Nakayama and Junichi Miyazaki (University of Tsukuba) for critical reading of the manuscript. The computations were partly performed on an SGI Origin 2000 in the NIBB Computer Laboratory and a SUN workstation (Sakura) in the Science Information Processing Center, University of Tsukuba. This work was supported by Grants-in-Aid for Encouragement of Young Scientists from Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, Japan, to T.K.-M.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Cell Biology, National Institute for Basic Biology, Okazaki 444-8585, Japan

    Takako Kato-Minoura & Ritsu Kamiya

  2. Institute of Biological Sciences, University of Tsukuba, Tsukuba 305-8572, Japan

    Takako Kato-Minoura

  3. Unit of Biosystems, Graduate School of Human Informatics, Nagoya University, Nagoya 464-8601, Japan

    Masayo Okumura

  4. Department of Biological Sciences, Graduate School of Science, University of Tokyo, Tokyo 113-0033, Japan

    Masafumi Hirono & Ritsu Kamiya

Authors
  1. Takako Kato-Minoura
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Masayo Okumura
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Masafumi Hirono
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Ritsu Kamiya
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Takako Kato-Minoura.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Kato-Minoura, T., Okumura, M., Hirono, M. et al. A Novel Family of Unconventional Actins in Volvocalean Algae . J Mol Evol 57, 555–561 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00239-003-2509-3

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00239-003-2509-3

Keywords

Search

Navigation