the functional domain of gcs1-based gamete fusion resides in the amino terminus in plant and parasite species的功能域gcs1-based配子融合驻留在植物的氨基酸和寄生虫的物种.pdfVIP

The Functional Domain of GCS1-Based Gamete Fusion Resides in the Amino Terminus in Plant and Parasite Species 1. 2. 3 1 Toshiyuki Mori *, Makoto Hirai , Tsuneyoshi Kuroiwa , Shin-ya Miyagishima 1 Miyagishima Initiative Research Unit, Advanced Science Institute, RIKEN, Saitama, Japan, 2 Department of Parasitology, Graduate School of Medicine, Gunma University, Gunma, Japan, 3 Department of Life Science, College of Science, Research Information Center for Extremophile, Rikkyo University, Tokyo, Japan Abstract Fertilization is one of the most important processes in all organisms utilizing sexual reproduction. In a previous study, we succeeded in identifying a novel male gametic transmembrane protein GCS1 (GENERATIVE CELL SPECIFIC 1), also called HAP2 (HAPLESS 2) in the male-sterile Arabidopsis thaliana mutants, as a factor critical to gamete fusion in flowering plants. Interestingly, GCS1 is highly conserved among various eukaryotes covering plants, protists and invertebrates. Of these organisms, Chlamydomonas (green alga) and Plasmodium (malaria parasite) GCS1s similarly show male gametic expression and gamete fusion function. Since it is generally believed that protein factors controlling gamete fusion have rapidly evolved and different organisms utilize species-specific gamete fusion factors, GCS1 may be an ancient fertilization factor derived from the common ancestor of those organisms above. And therefore, its molecular structure and function are important to understanding the common molecular mechanics of eukaryotic fertilization. In this study, we tried to detect the central functional domain(s) of GCS1, using complementation assay of ArabidopsisGCS1 mutant lines