Skip to main content
PMC home page
Molecular and Cellular Biology logoLink to Molecular and Cellular Biology
. 1986 Jul;6(7):2452–2461. doi: 10.1128/mcb.6.7.2452

Cloning and characterization of the gene for beta-tubulin from a benomyl-resistant mutant of Neurospora crassa and its use as a dominant selectable marker.

M J Orbach, E B Porro, C Yanofsky
PMCID: PMC367799  PMID: 2946938

Abstract

We cloned the beta-tubulin gene of Neurospora crassa from a benomyl-resistant strain and determined its nucleotide sequence. The gene encodes a 447-residue protein which shows strong homology to other beta-tubulins. The coding region is interrupted by six introns, five of which are within the region coding for the first 54 amino acids of the protein. Intron position comparisons between the N. crassa gene and other fungal beta-tubulin genes reveal considerable positional conservation. The mutation responsible for benomyl resistance was determined; it caused a phenylalanine-to-tyrosine change at position 167. Codon usage in the beta-tubulin gene is biased, as has been observed for other abundantly expressed N. crassa genes such as am and the H3 and H4 histone genes. This bias results in pyrimidines in the third positions of 96% of the codons in codon families in which there is a choice between purines and pyrimidines in this position. Bias is also evident by the absence of 19 of the 61 sense codons. We demonstrated that benomyl resistance is due to the cloned beta-tubulin gene of strain Bml511(r)a and that this gene can be used as a dominant selectable marker in N. crassa transformation.

Full text

PDF
2456

Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

  1. Aviv H., Leder P. Purification of biologically active globin messenger RNA by chromatography on oligothymidylic acid-cellulose. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1972 Jun;69(6):1408–1412. doi: 10.1073/pnas.69.6.1408. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. Bennetzen J. L., Hall B. D. Codon selection in yeast. J Biol Chem. 1982 Mar 25;257(6):3026–3031. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  3. Benton W. D., Davis R. W. Screening lambdagt recombinant clones by hybridization to single plaques in situ. Science. 1977 Apr 8;196(4286):180–182. doi: 10.1126/science.322279. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  4. Berk A. J., Sharp P. A. Sizing and mapping of early adenovirus mRNAs by gel electrophoresis of S1 endonuclease-digested hybrids. Cell. 1977 Nov;12(3):721–732. doi: 10.1016/0092-8674(77)90272-0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  5. Biggin M. D., Gibson T. J., Hong G. F. Buffer gradient gels and 35S label as an aid to rapid DNA sequence determination. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1983 Jul;80(13):3963–3965. doi: 10.1073/pnas.80.13.3963. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  6. Birnboim H. C., Doly J. A rapid alkaline extraction procedure for screening recombinant plasmid DNA. Nucleic Acids Res. 1979 Nov 24;7(6):1513–1523. doi: 10.1093/nar/7.6.1513. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  7. Borck K., Braymer H. D. The genetic analysis of resistance to benomyl in Neurospora crassa. J Gen Microbiol. 1974 Nov;85(1):51–56. doi: 10.1099/00221287-85-1-51. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  8. Denhardt D. T. A membrane-filter technique for the detection of complementary DNA. Biochem Biophys Res Commun. 1966 Jun 13;23(5):641–646. doi: 10.1016/0006-291x(66)90447-5. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  9. Drouin J. Cloning of human mitochondrial DNA in Escherichia coli. J Mol Biol. 1980 Jun 15;140(1):15–34. doi: 10.1016/0022-2836(80)90354-x. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  10. Hautala J. A., Conner B. H., Jacobson J. W., Patel G. L., Giles N. H. Isolation and characterization of nuclei from Neurospora crassa. J Bacteriol. 1977 May;130(2):704–713. doi: 10.1128/jb.130.2.704-713.1977. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  11. Henikoff S. Unidirectional digestion with exonuclease III creates targeted breakpoints for DNA sequencing. Gene. 1984 Jun;28(3):351–359. doi: 10.1016/0378-1119(84)90153-7. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  12. Hiraoka Y., Toda T., Yanagida M. The NDA3 gene of fission yeast encodes beta-tubulin: a cold-sensitive nda3 mutation reversibly blocks spindle formation and chromosome movement in mitosis. Cell. 1984 Dec;39(2 Pt 1):349–358. doi: 10.1016/0092-8674(84)90013-8. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  13. Ikemura T. Correlation between the abundance of Escherichia coli transfer RNAs and the occurrence of the respective codons in its protein genes: a proposal for a synonymous codon choice that is optimal for the E. coli translational system. J Mol Biol. 1981 Sep 25;151(3):389–409. doi: 10.1016/0022-2836(81)90003-6. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  14. Kimmel B. E., Samson S., Wu J., Hirschberg R., Yarbrough L. R. Tubulin genes of the African trypanosome Trypanosoma brucei rhodesiense:nucleotide sequence of a 3.7-kb fragment containing genes for alpha and beta tubulins. Gene. 1985;35(3):237–248. doi: 10.1016/0378-1119(85)90002-2. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  15. Kinnaird J. H., Fincham J. R. The complete nucleotide sequence of the Neurospora crassa am (NADP-specific glutamate dehydrogenase) gene. Gene. 1983 Dec;26(2-3):253–260. doi: 10.1016/0378-1119(83)90195-6. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  16. Kinnaird J. H., Keighren M. A., Kinsey J. A., Eaton M., Fincham J. R. Cloning of the am (glutamate dehydrogenase) gene of Neurospora crassa through the use of a synthetic DNA probe. Gene. 1982 Dec;20(3):387–396. doi: 10.1016/0378-1119(82)90207-4. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  17. Langford C. J., Klinz F. J., Donath C., Gallwitz D. Point mutations identify the conserved, intron-contained TACTAAC box as an essential splicing signal sequence in yeast. Cell. 1984 Mar;36(3):645–653. doi: 10.1016/0092-8674(84)90344-1. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  18. Legerton T. L., Yanofsky C. Cloning and characterization of the multifunctional his-3 gene of Neurospora crassa. Gene. 1985;39(2-3):129–140. doi: 10.1016/0378-1119(85)90306-3. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  19. Lerner M. R., Boyle J. A., Mount S. M., Wolin S. L., Steitz J. A. Are snRNPs involved in splicing? Nature. 1980 Jan 10;283(5743):220–224. doi: 10.1038/283220a0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  20. Maxam A. M., Gilbert W. Sequencing end-labeled DNA with base-specific chemical cleavages. Methods Enzymol. 1980;65(1):499–560. doi: 10.1016/s0076-6879(80)65059-9. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  21. Messing J., Vieira J. A new pair of M13 vectors for selecting either DNA strand of double-digest restriction fragments. Gene. 1982 Oct;19(3):269–276. doi: 10.1016/0378-1119(82)90016-6. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  22. Metzenberg R. L., Stevens J. N., Selker E. U., Morzycka-Wroblewska E. Identification and chromosomal distribution of 5S rRNA genes in Neurospora crassa. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1985 Apr;82(7):2067–2071. doi: 10.1073/pnas.82.7.2067. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  23. Mullins J. I., Brody D. S., Binari R. C., Jr, Cotter S. M. Viral transduction of c-myc gene in naturally occurring feline leukaemias. 1984 Apr 26-May 2Nature. 308(5962):856–858. doi: 10.1038/308856a0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  24. Neff N. F., Thomas J. H., Grisafi P., Botstein D. Isolation of the beta-tubulin gene from yeast and demonstration of its essential function in vivo. Cell. 1983 May;33(1):211–219. doi: 10.1016/0092-8674(83)90350-1. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  25. Norrander J., Kempe T., Messing J. Construction of improved M13 vectors using oligodeoxynucleotide-directed mutagenesis. Gene. 1983 Dec;26(1):101–106. doi: 10.1016/0378-1119(83)90040-9. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  26. Reinert W. R., Patel V. B., Giles N. H. Genetic regulation of the qa gene cluster of Neurospora crassa: induction of qa messenger ribonucleic acid and dependency on qa-1 function. Mol Cell Biol. 1981 Sep;1(9):829–835. doi: 10.1128/mcb.1.9.829. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  27. Rigby P. W., Dieckmann M., Rhodes C., Berg P. Labeling deoxyribonucleic acid to high specific activity in vitro by nick translation with DNA polymerase I. J Mol Biol. 1977 Jun 15;113(1):237–251. doi: 10.1016/0022-2836(77)90052-3. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  28. Sanger F., Nicklen S., Coulson A. R. DNA sequencing with chain-terminating inhibitors. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1977 Dec;74(12):5463–5467. doi: 10.1073/pnas.74.12.5463. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  29. Schechtman M. G., Yanofsky C. Structure of the trifunctional trp-1 gene from Neurospora crassa and its aberrant expression in Escherichia coli. J Mol Appl Genet. 1983;2(1):83–99. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  30. Schweizer M., Case M. E., Dykstra C. C., Giles N. H., Kushner S. R. Identification and characterization of recombinant plasmids carrying the complete qa gene cluster from Neurospora crassa including the qa-1+ regulatory gene. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1981 Aug;78(8):5086–5090. doi: 10.1073/pnas.78.8.5086. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  31. Sheir-Neiss G., Lai M. H., Morris N. R. Identification of a gene for beta-tubulin in Aspergillus nidulans. Cell. 1978 Oct;15(2):639–647. doi: 10.1016/0092-8674(78)90032-6. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  32. Southern E. M. Detection of specific sequences among DNA fragments separated by gel electrophoresis. J Mol Biol. 1975 Nov 5;98(3):503–517. doi: 10.1016/s0022-2836(75)80083-0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  33. Thomas J. H., Neff N. F., Botstein D. Isolation and characterization of mutations in the beta-tubulin gene of Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Genetics. 1985 Dec;111(4):715–734. doi: 10.1093/genetics/111.4.715. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  34. Valenzuela P., Quiroga M., Zaldivar J., Rutter W. J., Kirschner M. W., Cleveland D. W. Nucleotide and corresponding amino acid sequences encoded by alpha and beta tubulin mRNAs. Nature. 1981 Feb 19;289(5799):650–655. doi: 10.1038/289650a0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  35. Villa V. D., Storck R. Nucleotide composition of nuclear and mitochondrial deoxyribonucleic acid of fungi. J Bacteriol. 1968 Jul;96(1):184–190. doi: 10.1128/jb.96.1.184-190.1968. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  36. Wahl G. M., Stern M., Stark G. R. Efficient transfer of large DNA fragments from agarose gels to diazobenzyloxymethyl-paper and rapid hybridization by using dextran sulfate. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1979 Aug;76(8):3683–3687. doi: 10.1073/pnas.76.8.3683. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  37. Weatherbee J. A., Morris N. R. Aspergillus contains multiple tubulin genes. J Biol Chem. 1984 Dec 25;259(24):15452–15459. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  38. Woudt L. P., Pastink A., Kempers-Veenstra A. E., Jansen A. E., Mager W. H., Planta R. J. The genes coding for histone H3 and H4 in Neurospora crassa are unique and contain intervening sequences. Nucleic Acids Res. 1983 Aug 25;11(16):5347–5360. doi: 10.1093/nar/11.16.5347. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  39. Youngblom J., Schloss J. A., Silflow C. D. The two beta-tubulin genes of Chlamydomonas reinhardtii code for identical proteins. Mol Cell Biol. 1984 Dec;4(12):2686–2696. doi: 10.1128/mcb.4.12.2686. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

Articles from Molecular and Cellular Biology are provided here courtesy of Taylor & Francis

RESOURCES