CSM News Electronic Edition Volume 3, number 12 October 8, 1994 Please submit abstracts of your papers as soon as they have been accepted for publication by sending them to CSM-News@worms.cmsbio.nwu.edu. Back issues of CSM-News, the CSM Reference database and other useful information is available by anonymous ftp from worms.cmsbio.nwu.edu [165.124.233.50], via Gopher at the same address, or by World Wide Web through www.nwu.edu. =============== Announcements =============== Postdoc available ------------------ A postdoctoral fellowship is available in my lab starting on or about January, 1995. The Roche Institute of Molecular Biology is an academically oriented basic research institute funded wholly by the pharmaceutical company HoffmannLa Roche. It is located about 10 miles west of NYCity in suburban NJ. The members of the institute carry out basic research. Scientists at the Institute enjoy independence in their choice and pursuit of research problems. No product development is carried out. Publication is encouraged. Salary is $34,000. Full health benefits. Travel to Institute is paid for fellow. Rental subsidy. The major focus of my lab is in spore germination in Dictyostelium. Pertinent references are Ramalingam and Ennis, J. Biol. Chem. 268, 22680 (1993), Ramalingam et al., J. Bacteriology 174, 7834 (1992), and Blume and Ennis, J. Biol. Chem. 266, 15432 (1991). Those interested are urged to call me at (201) 235-3427 or contact me by e-mail at ennish@rnisd0.dnet.roche.com. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Vector sequences ---------------- Klaus Salger writes: I'm currently looking for dicty vector sequences but couldn't yet find any. I guess other people are also interested to get the full sequence of pDNeo, pVEII or whatever vector they use. Maybe people who constructed the vectors have them on their computers and are willing to share them with others. What do you think about asking people to upload their (multipurpose-) vector sequences to your FTP-site? [Anyone willing to upload their sequences can deposit them by anonymous ftp to worms.cmsbio.nwu.edu in the directory pub/incoming. Please send an email message to csm-news@worms.cmsbio.nwu.edu if you do. If you have trouble doing this contact me. --Rex] =========== Abstracts =========== Structural roles of the spore coat proteins in Dictyostelium discoideum. Kathy Fosnaugh, Danny Fuller and William F. Loomis Center for Molecular Genetics, UCSD, La Jolla, CA 92093 Develop. Biol., in press. Summary The integrity of spores formed by mutant strains of Dictyostelium discoideum lacking the major spore coat proteins, SP96, SP70, or SP60, was compared to that of wild-type strains. Single, double, and triple knock-out strains developed normally and produced spores which were indistinguishable from wild-type spores by light or electron microscopy. However, the mutant strains were susceptable to staining with the lectin, ricinA, which recognizes a galactose-rich polysaccharide that is normally hidden by over-lying spore coat proteins. The intensity of staining with fluorescently labelled ricinA increased as the spore coat proteins were incrementally lost. While these results indicate that the major outer spore coat proteins are not essential for the construction of a multi-layered spore coat in Dictyostelium, they show that the spores are more porous which might make them at risk to predators before germination. -------------------------------------------------------------------- Developmental regulation of DEAD-box proteins and cloning of putative RNA helicase genes from Dictyostelium discoideum. Beatrice Mahal and Wolfgang Nellen* Max-Planck Institut fuer Biochemie, 82152 Martinsried, Germany Biological Chemistry Hoppe-Seyler, in press Summary RNA secondary structure is essential for RNA function in pre-mRNA splicing, mRNA translation, ribosome assembly and RNA stability. The involvement of DEAD/H RNA helicases in the regulation of these processes has been demonstrated in some cases. To investigate the repertoire of DEAD box proteins expressed in Dictyostelium discoideum, we used PCR techniques to clone two cDNAs coding for DEAD box proteins with high similarity to known yeast proteins: Dictyostelium Hel2A is about 45% identical to S.cerevisiae DBP2 and S.pombe dbp2, the yeast homologues of human p68. Dictyostelium Hel2B is about 43% identical to the S.cerevisiae splicing factor PRP28, but has a different domain at the N-terminus, which is unique for Dictyostelium discoideum. Using a polyclonal antibody directed against a DEAD box peptide we show differential expression of three DEAD box proteins during the developmental cycle of Dictyostelium. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- [End CSM-News, volume 3, number 12]