Article

Unexpected roles of a Dictyostelium homologue of eukaryotic EF-2 in growth and differentiation.

Department of Developmental Biology and Neurosciences, Graduate School of Life Sciences, Tohoku University, Sendai 980-8578, Japan.
Journal of Cell Science (impact factor: 6.11). 08/2003; 116(Pt 13):2647-54. DOI:10.1242/jcs.00476 pp.2647-54
Source: PubMed

ABSTRACT EF-2 is believed to be indispensable for polypeptide chain elongation in protein synthesis and therefore for cell proliferation. Surprisingly, we could isolate ef2 null cells from Dictyostelium discoideum that exhibited almost normal growth and protein synthesis, which suggests that there is another molecule capable of compensating for EF-2 function. The knock-out of Dictyostelium EF-2 (Dd-EF2H; 101 kDa phosphoprotein) impairs cytokinesis, resulting in formation of multinucleate cells. The initiation of differentiation, including the acquisition of aggregation competence, was delayed in Dd-ef2 null cells compared with that in wild-type. By contrast, Dd-ef2 overexpression enhanced the progression of differentiation, thus indicating a positive involvement of Dd-EF2H in growth/differentiation transition.

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  • Article: Unique behavior and function of the mitochondrial ribosomal protein S4 (RPS4) in early Dictyostelium development.
    Koh-Ichi Hosoya, Aiko Amagai, Junji Chida, Yasuo Maeda
    [show abstract] [hide abstract]
    ABSTRACT: Certain proteins encoded by mitochondrial DNA (mt-DNA), including mt-ribosomal protein S4 (rps4), appear to play important roles in the initiation of cell differentiation. Partial disruption of rps4 in Dictyostelium discoideum Ax-2 cells by means of homologous recombination greatly impairs the progression of differentiation, while the the rps4(OE) cells in which the rps4 mRNA was overexpressed in the extra-mitochondrial cytoplasm exhibit enhanced differentiation (Inazu et al., 1999). We have prepared a specific anti-RPS4 antibody and generated transformants (rps4(AS) cells) by antisense-mediated gene inactivation of rps4. Surprisingly, in the rps4(AS) cells the progress of differentiation was found to be markedly inhibited, suggesting that the antisense rps4 RNA synthesized in the extra-mitochondrial cytoplasm might be as effective as the partial disruption of rps4 gene. Immunostaining of the rps4(OE) cells with the anti-RPS4 antibody demonstrated that the RPS4 protein synthesized in the extra-mitochondrial cytoplasm is capable of moving to the nucleus, as predicted by PSORTII. Taken together with the results obtained using immunostained Ax-2 cells, we propose a possible pathway of RPS4 translocation coupled with differentiation.
    ZOOLOGICAL SCIENCE 01/2004; 20(12):1455-65. · 0.95 Impact Factor
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Keywords

101 kDa phosphoprotein
 
aggregation competence
 
Dd-ef2 null cells
 
Dd-ef2 overexpression
 
Dd-EF2H
 
Dictyostelium EF-2
 
EF-2
 
EF-2 function
 
ef2 null cells
 
growth/differentiation transition
 
knock-out
 
molecule capable
 
multinucleate cells
 
polypeptide chain elongation
 
wild-type