title: Parkin-co-regulated gene (PACRG) product interacts with tubulin and microtubules.
abstract: Parkin-co-regulated gene (PACRG) is a gene that shares a bidirectional promoter with Parkinson's disease-related Parkin/Park2 gene. Recently, the PACRG gene product was implicated in the function of flagella. However, its exact function remains unknown. Here, I assessed the interaction between PACRG and tubulin. Co-sedimentation experiments revealed that PACRG directly binds to microtubules and alpha/beta-tubulin heterodimers with high affinity. Microscopic studies showed that PACRG bundles microtubules and forms branched aggregates with unpolymerized tubulin dimers. The amino acid sequence of the microtubule-binding region of PACRG is highly conserved among various organisms, suggesting that tubulin binding is a basic property of PACRG.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biological Sciences, Graduate School of Science, University of Tokyo, Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-0033, Japan. tikeda@lab.tamagawa.ac.jp
authors.forename: Takashi
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Ikeda
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D017124:Conserved Sequence; D019281:Dimerization; D006801:Humans; D008840:Microfilament Proteins; D008869:Microtubule-Associated Proteins / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D008870:Microtubules / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000378:metabolism / Q000648:ultrastructure; D018832:Molecular Chaperones / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D020539:Sequence Analysis, Protein; D014404:Tubulin / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000378:metabolism / Q000648:ultrastructure
chemical_list: D008840:Microfilament Proteins; D008869:Microtubule-Associated Proteins; D018832:Molecular Chaperones; C471711:PACRG protein, human; D014404:Tubulin