This Article Full Text (PDF) Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Reprints and Permissions Copyright Information Books from ASM Press MicrobeWorld Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Katz, W Articles by Solomon, F Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Katz, W Articles by Solomon, F

 Previous Article  |  Next Article 

Mol Cell Biol. 1990 October; 10(10): 5286-5294

Regulation of tubulin levels and microtubule assembly in Saccharomyces cerevisiae: consequences of altered tubulin gene copy number.

W Katz, B Weinstein and F Solomon

Department of Biology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge 02139.

ABSTRACT

Microtubule organization in the cytoplasm is in part a function of the number and length of the assembled polymers. The intracellular concentration of tubulin could specify those parameters. Saccharomyces cerevisiae strains constructed with moderately decreased or increased copy numbers of tubulin genes provide an opportunity to study the cellular response to a steady-state change in tubulin concentration. We found no evidence of a mechanism for adjusting tubulin concentrations upward from a deficit, nor did we find a need for such a mechanism: cells with no more than 50% of the wild-type tubulin level were normal with respect to a series of microtubule-dependent properties. Strains with increased copies of both alpha- and beta-tubulin genes, or of alpha-tubulin genes alone, apparently did down regulate their tubulin levels. As a result, they contained greater than normal concentrations of tubulin but much less than predicted from the increase in gene number. Some of this down regulation occurred at the level of protein. These strains were also phenotypically normal. Cells could contain excess alpha-tubulin protein without detectable consequences, but perturbations resulting in excess beta-tubulin genes may have affected microtubule-dependent functions. All of the observed regulation of levels of tubulin can be explained as a response to toxicity associated with excess tubulin proteins, especially if beta-tubulin is much more toxic than alpha-tubulin.

---

Mol Cell Biol. 1990 October; 10(10): 5286-5294

This article has been cited by other articles:

• Torres, E. M., Williams, B. R., Amon, A. (2008). Aneuploidy: Cells Losing Their Balance. Genetics 179: 737-746 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
• Torres, E. M., Sokolsky, T., Tucker, C. M., Chan, L. Y., Boselli, M., Dunham, M. J., Amon, A. (2007). Effects of Aneuploidy on Cellular Physiology and Cell Division in Haploid Yeast. Science 317: 916-924 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
• Weart, R. B., Levin, P. A. (2003). Growth Rate-Dependent Regulation of Medial FtsZ Ring Formation. J. Bacteriol. 185: 2826-2834 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
• Burns, C. G., Ohi, R., Mehta, S., O'Toole, E. T., Winey, M., Clark, T. A., Sugnet, C. W., Ares, M. Jr., Gould, K. L. (2002). Removal of a Single {alpha}-Tubulin Gene Intron Suppresses Cell Cycle Arrest Phenotypes of Splicing Factor Mutations in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Mol. Cell. Biol. 22: 801-815 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
• Paluh, J. L., Nogales, E., Oakley, B. R., McDonald, K., Pidoux, A. L., Cande, W. Z. (2000). A Mutation in gamma -Tubulin Alters Microtubule Dynamics and Organization and Is Synthetically Lethal with the Kinesin-like Protein Pkl1p. Mol. Biol. Cell 11: 1225-1239 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
• Feierbach, B., Nogales, E., Downing, K. H., Stearns, T. (1999). Alf1p, a CLIP-170 Domain-containing Protein, Is Functionally and Physically Associated with {alpha}-Tubulin. JCB 144: 113-124 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
• Carminati, J. L., Stearns, T. (1997). Microtubules Orient the Mitotic Spindle in Yeast through Dynein-dependent Interactions with the Cell Cortex. JCB 138: 629-641 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
• Guenette, S, Magendantz, M, Solomon, F (1995). Suppression of a conditional mutation in alpha-tubulin by overexpression of two checkpoint genes. J. Cell Sci. 108: 1195-1204 [Abstract]  
• Matthews, K., Rees, D, Kaufman, T. (1993). A functionally specialized alpha-tubulin is required for oocyte meiosis and cleavage mitoses in Drosophila. Development 117: 977-991 [Abstract]  
• Zhou, R., Oskarsson, M, Paules, R., Schulz, N, Cleveland, D, Vande Woude, G. (1991). Ability of the c-mos product to associate with and phosphorylate tubulin. Science 251: 671-675 [Abstract]  
• Daar, I., Zhou, R., Shen, R.-L., Nebreda, A., Oskarsson, M., Santos, E., Pinto da Silva, P., Masui, Y., Vande Woude, G.F. (1991). Mos and Ras: Two Oncoproteins That Display M-phase Activity. Cold Spring Harb Symp Quant Biol 56: 477-488 [Abstract]