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Inducible Expression of Ran1 and Its GDP- and GTP-Bound Mimetic Mutants Leads to Defects in Amitosis and Cytokinesis with Abnormal Cytoplasmic Microtubule Assembly

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Abstract

Ran is an evolutionarily conserved GTPase crucial in regulating various cell divisions, including mitosis and meiosis. A previous study showed that the knockdown of RAN1 inhibited macronuclear amitosis with the abnormal organization of intramacronuclear microtubules in Tetrahymena thermophila. This study aimed to further investigate the effects of the inducible expression of wild-type Ran1 (Ran1WT), GTP-bound Ran1-mimetic (Ran1Q70L), and GDP-bound Ran1-mimetic (Ran1T25N) on cytoplasmic microtubule assembly during amitosis of T. thermophila, based on previous studies about their effects on intramacronuclear microtubule. The mutant strains of T. thermophila for inducible expression of Ran1WT/T25N/Q70L by Cd2+ were constructed. The inducibly expressed HA-Ran1Q70L/T25N distributed asymmetrically across the macronuclear envelope during amitosis. At the lower level of inducible expression, only Ran1T25N showed a significant decreasing effect on T. thermophila reproduction, macronuclear amitosis and cytokinesis. At the higher level of inducible expression, Ran1WT/Q70L/T25N inhibited T. thermophila reproduction, macronuclear amitosis and cytokinesis, and the inhibitive effect of Ran1T25N was the most significant. The inducible expression of Ran1WT/Q70L/T25N led to defects in amitosis and cytokinesis with abnormal cytoplasmic microtubule assembly. These results further confirmed the regulatory function of Ran1 on amitosis and suggested a novel role of Ran1 in cytokinesis and the alignment of cytoplasmic microtubules in T. thermophila.

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FUNDING

This work was financially supported by grants from the National Natural Scientific Foundation of China [#31501124] and Key Research and Development Project of Shanxi Province (International Cooperation project no. 201803D421087).

COMPLIANCE WITH ETHICAL STANDARDS

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest. This article does not contain any studies involving animals or human participants performed by any of the authors.

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  1. Institute of Biomedical Engineering, Taiyuan University of Technology, 030024, Taiyuan, Shanxi, China

    H. X. Liang

  2. College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Taiyuan University of Technology, 030024, Taiyuan, Shanxi, China

    H. W. Liu

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Correspondence to H. X. Liang.

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Liang, H.X., Liu, H.W. Inducible Expression of Ran1 and Its GDP- and GTP-Bound Mimetic Mutants Leads to Defects in Amitosis and Cytokinesis with Abnormal Cytoplasmic Microtubule Assembly. Mol Biol 53, 393–401 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1134/S0026893319030105

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1134/S0026893319030105

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