We analyzed the role of tubulin polyglycylation in Tetrahymena thermophila using in vivo mutagenesis and immunochemical analysis with modification-specific antibodies. Three and five polyglycylation sites were identified at glutamic acids near the COOH termini of α- and β-tubulin, respectively. Mutants lacking all polyglycylation sites on α-tubulin have normal phenotype, whereas similar sites on β-tubulin are essential. A viable mutant with three mutated sites in β-tubulin showed reduced tubulin glycylation, slow growth and motility, and defects in cytokinesis. Cells in which all five polyglycylation sites on β-tubulin were mutated were viable if they were cotransformed with an α-tubulin gene whose COOH terminus was replaced by the wild-type COOH terminus of β-tubulin. In this double mutant, β-tubulin lacked detectable polyglycylation, while the α-β tubulin chimera was hyperglycylated compared with α-tubulin in wild-type cells. Thus, the essential function of polyglycylation of the COOH terminus of β-tubulin can be transferred to α-tubulin, indicating it is the total amount of polyglycylation on both α- and β-tubulin that is essential for survival.

Recently, we developed a mass DNA-mediated transformation technique for the ciliated protozoan Tetrahymena thermophila that introduces transforming DNA by electroporation into conjugating cells. Other studies demonstrated that a neomycin resistance gene flanked by Tetrahymena H4-I gene regulatory sequences transformed Tetrahymena by homologous recombination within the H4-I locus when microinjected into the macronucleus. We describe the use of conjugant electrotransformation (CET) for gene replacement and for the development of new independently replicating vectors and a gene cassette that can be used as a selectable marker in gene knockout experiments. Using CET, the neomycin resistance gene flanked by H4-I sequences transformed Tetrahymena, resulting in the replacement of the H4-I gene or integrative recombination of the H4-I/neo/H4-I gene (but not vector sequences) in the 5' or 3' flanking region of the H4-I locus. Gene replacement was obtained with non-digested plasmid DNA but releasing the insert increased the frequency of replacement events about 6-fold. The efficiency of transformation by the H4-I/neo/H4-I selectable marker was unchanged when a single copy of the Tetrahymena rDNA replication origin was included on the transforming plasmid. However, the efficiency of transformation using CET increased greatly when a tandem repeat of the replication origin fragment was used. This high frequency of transformation enabled mapping of the region required for H4-I promoter function to within 333 bp upstream of the initiator ATG. Similarly approximately 300 bp of sequence downstream of the translation terminator TGA of the beta-tubulin 2 (BTU2) gene could substitute for the 3' region of the H4-I gene. This hybrid H4-I/neo/BTU2 gene did not transform Tetrahymena when subcloned on a plasmid lacking an origin of replication, but did transform at high frequency on a two origin plasmid. Thus, the H4-I/neo/BTU2 cassette is a selectable marker that can be used for gene knockout in Tetrahymena. As a first step toward constructing a vector suitable for cloning genes by complementation of mutations in Tetrahymena, we also demonstrated that the vector containing 2 origins and the H4-I/neo/BTU2 cassette can co-express a gene encoding a cycloheximide resistant ribosomal protein.

No abstract

The haploid Tetrahymena thermophila genome contains a single ␣-tubulin (ATU) gene. Using biolistic transformation, we disrupted one of the two copies of the ATU gene in the diploid germ-line micronucleus. The heterozygous germ-line transformants were made homozygous in the micronucleus by mating to a star strain containing a defective micronucleus. This mating, known as round 1 genomic exclusion, resulted in two heterokaryon clones of different mating types which have both copies of the ATU gene knocked out in the micronucleus but only wild-type genes in the polycopy somatic macronucleus. When these heterokaryons were mated, the exconjugant progeny cells did not grow because the new somatic macronuclei do not have any ␣-tubulin genes. However, when these conjugants were transformed with a functional marked ATU gene, viable transformants were obtained that contained the transforming ATU gene at the homologous locus in the new macronucleus. The exconjugant progeny could be rescued at a high efficiency (900 transformants per g of DNA) with a wild-type ATU gene. Unlike previous macronuclear transformation protocols, this strategy should allow introduction of highly disadvantageous (but viable) mutations into Tetrahymena, providing a powerful tool for molecular and functional studies of essential genes. These knockout heterokaryons were used to demonstrate that gene transfer from somatic macronuclei to germ-line micronuclei occurs rarely if at all.