1. The protein kinases AtMAP3Kε1 and BnMAP3Kε1 are functional homologues of S. pombe cdc7p and may be involved in cell division
- Author
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Jouannic, Stefan, Champion, Anthony, Seguí-Simarro, José María, Salimova, Ekaterina, Picaud, Alain, Tregear, James, Testillano, P. S., Risueño, María Carmen, Simanis, Viesturs, Kreis, Martin, Henry, Yves, European Commission, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (France), and Ministère de l’Enseignement supérieur et de la Recherche (France)
- Subjects
Arabidopsis ,MAP kinase kinase kinase ,food and beverages ,Mitosis ,Cell cycle ,CDC7 ,Cytokinesis - Abstract
We identified an Arabidopsis thaliana gene, AtMAP3Kε1, and a Brassica napus cDNA, BnMAP3Kε1, encoding functional protein serine/threonine kinases closely related to cdc7p and Cdc15p from Schizosaccharomyces pombe and Saccharomyces cerevisiae, respectively. This is the first report of cdc7-related genes in non-fungal eukaryotes; no such genes have as yet been identified in Metazoans. The B. napus protein is able to partially complement a cdc7 loss of function mutation in S. pombe. RT–PCR and in situ hybridisation revealed that the A. thaliana and B. napus genes are expressed in both the sporophytic and the gametophytic tissues of the respective plant species and revealed further that expression is highest in dividing cells. Moreover, AtMAP3Kε1 gene expression is cell cycle-regulated, with higher expression in G2-M phases. Our results strongly suggest that the plant cdc7p-related protein kinases are involved in a signal transduction pathway similar to the SIN pathway, which positively regulates cytokinesis in S. pombe., This work was mainly supported by a EU grant (SIME project BIOTEC-RTD-CEE PL 960275). The authors also acknowledge the financial support of the MERS and CNRS to UMR 8618, and DGESIG PB98–0678.
- Published
- 2001