CACTIN is an essential nuclear protein in Arabidopsis and may be associated with the eukaryotic spliceosome

FEBS Lett. 2013 Apr 2;587(7):873-9. doi: 10.1016/j.febslet.2013.02.041. Epub 2013 Feb 27.

Abstract

CACTIN is a conserved eukaryotic protein without known functional domains. Previous research revealed that CACTIN is essential in animals and protists and that it may function in inflammation pathways in animals; however, these pathways are not as broadly conserved as CACTIN. Therefore, the ancestral molecular function of CACTIN remains unknown. Our studies using Arabidopsis show that CACTIN is required for embryogenesis. Fluorescently tagged CACTIN localizes to nuclear speckles and colocalizes with known splicing proteins. In yeast-two-hybrid studies, we found that CACTIN binds to a putative component of the spliceosome. These findings support a possible role for CACTIN in splicing.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
  • Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.

MeSH terms

  • Amino Acid Sequence
  • Arabidopsis / genetics
  • Arabidopsis / metabolism*
  • Arabidopsis Proteins / classification
  • Arabidopsis Proteins / genetics
  • Arabidopsis Proteins / metabolism*
  • Cell Nucleus
  • Eukaryota / genetics
  • Eukaryota / metabolism
  • Genes, Essential / genetics
  • Luminescent Proteins / genetics
  • Luminescent Proteins / metabolism
  • Microscopy, Fluorescence
  • Molecular Sequence Data
  • Mutation
  • Nuclear Proteins / classification
  • Nuclear Proteins / genetics
  • Nuclear Proteins / metabolism*
  • Phylogeny
  • Plants, Genetically Modified
  • Protein Binding
  • Seeds / genetics
  • Seeds / growth & development
  • Seeds / metabolism
  • Sequence Homology, Amino Acid
  • Spliceosomes / metabolism*
  • Two-Hybrid System Techniques

Substances

  • Arabidopsis Proteins
  • CACTIN protein, Arabidopsis
  • Luminescent Proteins
  • Nuclear Proteins