Logo image
Molecular clones of α-tubulin genes of Plasmodium yoelii reveal an unusual feature of the carboxy terminus
Journal article   Peer reviewed

Molecular clones of α-tubulin genes of Plasmodium yoelii reveal an unusual feature of the carboxy terminus

Rama Akella, Prema Arasu and Akhil B Vaidya
Molecular and biochemical parasitology, v 30(2), pp 165-174
1988
PMID: 2459618

Abstract

Plasmodium α-Tubulin Evolution Microtubule Malaria Molecular cloning
By using a Trypanosoma brucei α-tubulin cDNA probe under reduced stringency hybridization conditions, we have isolated two genomic clones that constitute portions of α-tubulin genes of the rodent malarial parasite Plasmodium yoelii, P. yoelii has two α-tubulin genes, the 3′ portions of which were present in the two clones, PyαT1 and PyαT2, containing 1.3 kb and 6.6 kb EcoRI fragments respectively. The 1358 bp PyαT1 clone was completely sequenced and found to contain 591 nucleotides of uninterrupted coding sequence with a strong bias for AT-rich codons, starting with codon 254 of a consensus α-tubulin sequence. Numerous attempts to clone 5′ portions of these genes were unsuccessful. A single mRNA of 2.3 kb was recognized by both the clones in the erythrocytic stages of P. yoelii. A probe constituting the untranslated sequences of PyαT1 also recognized this RNA but failed to hybridize with PyαT2 sequences, indicating that the gene represented by the PyαT1 clone was expressed during the erythrocytic stages. The deduced amino acid sequence of the PyαT1 gene terminates in Tyr-Glu instead of Glu-Tyr observed in α-tubulins of almost all other organisms. The difference observed may have implications for α-tubulin metabolism in malarial parasites.

Metrics

12 Record Views
13 citations in Scopus

Details

UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

This publication has contributed to the advancement of the following goals:

#3 Good Health and Well-Being

InCites Highlights

Data related to this publication, from InCites Benchmarking & Analytics tool:

Web of Science research areas
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Parasitology
Logo image