Tetrahymena

Kaczanowska, Janina, Kiersnowska, Mauryla, Fabczak, Hanna, Kaczanowski, Szymon & Kaczanowski, Andrzej, 2012, Effects of Roscovitine on Schedule of Divisional Morphogenesis, Basal Bodies Proliferation and Cell Divisions in Tetrahymena thermophila, Acta Protozoologica 51 (2), pp. 91-111 : 103

Search in Tetrahymena genome for CDH1 gene that might be involved in mitotic exit and search for association of BBs with cdc14-phosphatase

In eukaryotic cells, the coordination of centriole activities during mitotic exit and cytokinesis depends on association of centrioles with the separase and the cdc 14-like phosphatase (Sullivan and Uhlmann 2003, Bembenek and Yu 2001, Kaiser et al. 2004, Tsou et al. 2009, Zineldeen et al. 2009, Bembenek et al. 2010, Ah-Wong and Judelson 2011) and with an ubiquitin ligase components localized to the centrosomes ( Freed et al. 1999). In Metazoa, the activation of these enzymes is controlled by the CDH1 mitotic exit signal ( Queralt and Uhlmann 2008, van Leuken et al. 2009, Steere et al. 2011).

All mature BBs in Tetrahymena are associated with the CDK1 homologue ( Zhang et al. 2002). On the other hand we were unable to find a gene(s) encoding the protein of the CDC 25 phosphatase in the Tetrahymena thermophila genome. The separase in Tetrahymena is encoded by the gene TTHERM-00297160-C50 ( Eisen et al. 2006, Pearson and Winey 2009). The homologue of the yeast CDH1 gene is also present in Tetrahymena genome (see below). Such data prompted us to search in Tetrahymena genome for the cdc14 homologue and to test its putative associations with BBs during cell cycle.