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G Weeks

Publications and source records attributed to G Weeks.

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The effects of expression of an activated rasG mutation on the differentiation of Dictyostelium.

Dictyostelium discoideum contains two ras genes, rasG and rasD, that are expressed during growth and differentiation, respectively. It was shown previously that Dictyostelium transformants expressing an activated rasD gene (a mutation producing a change in amino acid 12 from glycine to threonine) developed abnormally. When developed on filters these transformants formed multitipped aggregates, which did not go on to produce final fruiting bodies, but in a submerged culture assay on a plastic surface they either formed small aggregates or did not aggregate. In this study we transformed cells with the rasG gene, mutated to change amino acid 12 from glycine to threonine. The resulting transformants developed normally on filters, but aggregation under other conditions was impaired. In particular, in submerged culture on a plastic surface they either produced very small aggregates or did not aggregate, one of the phenotypes exhibited by the activated rasD transformants. Molecular analysis of the transformants revealed the presence of high copy numbers of the mutated rasG gene, but the level of expression of the mutant gene never exceeded the level of expression of the endogenous gene. These results indicate a powerful dominant effect of a relatively small amount of the activated RasG protein in Dictyostelium.

Animals↗

A Dictyostelium discoideum gene, which is highly related to mo15 from Xenopus, is expressed during growth but not during development.

We have isolated a cDNA from the cellular slime mold Dictyostelium discoideum encoding a protein that is 52% identical to the Xenopus Mo15 kinase and highly related to the equivalent proteins from human (52% identity), rice (52.7% identity), and yeast (47.6% identity). Mo15 is responsible for the activation of Cdc2 kinase and is itself a member of the large Cdc2-related family of protein kinases. The Dictyostelium protein is more related to the Xenopus Mo15 protein than it is to either the Dictyostelium Cdc2 or Crp proteins. Southern blot analysis of genomic V12-M2 DNA indicated that mo15 is present as a single copy gene that cross hybridizes with cdc2 at low stringency. Northern blot analysis of RNA from different stages of Dictyostelium development showed that mo15 is only expressed during vegetative cell growth.

Amino Acid Sequence↗