Biochemical analysis of the interaction between elongation factor 1alpha and alpha/beta-tubulins from a ciliate, Tetrahymena pyriformis.
The interaction between elongation factor 1alpha (EF-1alpha) and alpha/beta-tubulins has been analyzed in vivo and in vitro. An association of both alpha- and beta-tubulins with EF-1alpha in the lysate of Tetrahymena pyriformis was detected by co-immunoprecipitation analysis. In contrast, in vitro biomolecular interaction analysis with glutathione S-transferase (GST) fusion proteins revealed that GST-beta-tubulin, but not GST-alpha-tubulin, can bind to GST-EF-1alpha. Two beta-tubulin binding sites have been identified to reside in the domains I and III of EF-1alpha. In addition, beta-tubulin itself seems to have two distinct interaction sites for each of the domains. Since domain II of EF-1alpha did not interact with beta-tubulin, we have re-evaluated the phylogenetic status of ciliates using EF-1alpha sequences devoid of domain II. The phylogenetic tree thus obtained was significantly different from that inferred from the whole sequence of EF-1alpha, suggesting the presence of functional constraints on the molecular evolution of EF-1alpha.
Nakazawa
M
M
The Graduate School of Science and Technology, Kobe University, Japan.
Moreira
D
D
Laurent
J
J
Le Guyader
H
H
Fukami
Y
Y
Ito
K
K
D000818:Animals; D001665:Binding Sites; D019143:Evolution, Molecular; D020648:Peptide Elongation Factor 1; D010445:Peptide Elongation Factors / Q000378:metabolism*; D011485:Protein Binding; D013769:Tetrahymena pyriformis; D014404:Tubulin / Q000378:metabolism*
D020648:Peptide Elongation Factor 1; D010445:Peptide Elongation Factors; D014404:Tubulin