title: Functional analyses of the domain structure of microtubule-associated protein-4 (MAP-U).
abstract: Bovine microtubule-associated protein-4 (MAP-4), which was previously named MAP-U, consists of an amino-terminal projection domain (N-domain) and a carboxyl-terminal microtubule-binding domain (C-domain) (Aizawa, H., Emori, Y., Murofushi, H., Kawasaki, H., Sakai, H., and Suzuki, K. (1990) J. Biol. Chem. 265, 13849-13855). The C-domain contains a region rich in proline (Pro-rich region) and a region containing four assembly-promoting sequences (AP sequence region) which is shared by MAP-2 and tau. We purified a series of truncated fragments of MAP-4 expressed in Escherichia coli. An N-domain fragment did not bind to microtubules, while a C-domain fragment promoted microtubule assembly. Both of the fragments corresponding to the Pro-rich region (P fragment) and the AP sequence region (A4 fragment) promoted tubulin polymerization, although the A4 fragment had lower activity than intact MAP-4 and P fragment. A4 fragment produced morphologically normal microtubules whereas P fragment produced abnormal microtubules such as duplex microtubules and tight bundles of microtubules with diverse diameters. We concluded that both Pro-rich and AP sequence regions take part in the promotion of tubulin polymerization, and that the former is important for the MAP to bind to microtubules with high efficiency and the latter is essential for the formation of microtubules with normal morphology.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biophysics and Biochemistry, Faculty of Science, University of Tokyo, Japan.
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Aizawa
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Emori
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Mori
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Murofushi
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Sakai
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Suzuki
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D002417:Cattle; D004591:Electrophoresis, Polyacrylamide Gel; D004926:Escherichia coli / Q000235:genetics; D015964:Gene Expression Regulation, Bacterial; D005798:Genes, Bacterial; D008854:Microscopy, Electron; D008869:Microtubule-Associated Proteins / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000235:genetics; D008870:Microtubules / Q000737:chemistry / Q000648:ultrastructure; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010957:Plasmids; D011487:Protein Conformation
chemical_list: D008869:Microtubule-Associated Proteins