Mutations in a beta-tubulin disrupt spindle orientation and microtubule dynamics in the early Caenorhabditis elegans embryo.

ABSTRACT: The early Caenorhabditis elegans embryo contains abundant transcripts for two alpha- and two beta-tubulins, raising the question of whether each isoform performs specialized functions or simply contributes to total tubulin levels. Our identification of two recessive, complementing alleles of a beta-tubulin that disrupt nuclear-centrosome centration and rotation in the early embryo originally suggested that this tubulin, tbb-2, has specialized functions. However, embryos from tbb-2 deletion worms do not have defects in nuclear-centrosome centration and rotation suggesting that the complementing alleles are not null mutations. Both complementing alleles have distinct effects on microtubule dynamics and show allele-specific interactions with the two embryonically expressed alpha-tubulins: One

SUBMITTER: Wright AJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC268303 | biostudies-literature | 2003 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature