Jean-Claude Chuat

Construction and optimization of a dog whole-genome radiation hybrid panel

Abstract. A dog whole-genome radiation hybrid (WGRH) panel including 126 clones was constructed by fusing dog fibroblasts irradiated at 5000 rads with thymidine kinase-deficient hamster cells. The average retention frequency of the panel designated as RHDF5000 is 21%, and its resolution power is estimated at 600 kb. The data provided by typing 400 markers were used to estimate linkage power changes subsequent to panel reduction. These changes were analyzed by recomputing typing data from five reduced panels. From these simulations, the parameters allowing investigation of the evolution of the linkage power in the course of panel reduction were determined. Guidelines for constructing a WGRH panel are proposed.

Comparison of the cDNA and amino acid sequences of lipoprotein lipase in eight species

By aligning nucleotide and amino acid sequences of lipoprotein lipase in eight species (man, pig, cow, sheep, mouse, rat, guinea-pig and chicken), we found that the main domains (catalytic, N-glycosylation and putative heparin binding sites) are well conserved. The longest identical amino acid chain was encoded by a sequence between the end of exon 2 and the beginning of exon 3, emphasizing the importance of this region which encodes the beta 5-loop of the active site, among other domains. Exon 10 is entirely untranslated in the seven mammals studied here and contains species-characteristic deletions, insertions or elements rich in A or A + T. In chicken, the beginning of exon 10 is translated. These eight previously unreported alignments could be a useful tool for further studies on LPL function.

Sequence of rat lipoprotein lipase-encoding cDNA

A rat lipoprotein lipase (LPL)-encoding cDNA (LPL) has been entirely sequenced and compared to the sequences of all the LPL cDNAs reported in other species. As expected, high homology was found between the coding exons. The putative catalytic triad, Ser132, Asp156, His241, according to human numbering, is conserved in rat. As is the case in mouse, an Asn444 present in human LPL is also missing. The major divergences between human, mouse and rat LPLs were observed in the untranslated exon 10, where (i) the rat cDNA exhibits a 157-bp insertion and an 81-bp deletion relative to human; (ii) neither the B1 repeat nor the homopurine stretch reported in mouse can be recognized, and (iii) the rat cDNA displays several A+T-rich stretches.

IDENTIFICATION OF ACT4, A NOVEL ESSENTIAL ACTIN-RELATED GENE IN THE YEAST SACCHAROMYCES CEREVISIAE

Actin molecules are major cytoskeleton components of all eukaryotic cells. All conventional actins that have been identified so far are 374–376 amino acids in size and exhibit at least 70% amino acid sequence identity when compared with one another. In the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae, one conventional actin gene ACT1 and three so‐called actin‐related genes, ACT2, ACT3 and ACT5, have been identified. We report here the discovery of a new actin‐related gene in this organism, which we have named ACT4. The deduced protein, Act4, of 449 amino acids, exhibits only 33·4%, 26·7%, 23·4% and 29·2% identity to Act1, Act2, Act3 and Act5, respectively. In contrast, it is 68·4% identical to the product of the Schizosaccharomyces pombe Act2 gene and has a similar level of identity to other Sch. pombe Act2 homologues. This places Act4 in the Arp3 family of actin‐related proteins. ACT4 gene disruption and tetrad analysis demonstrate that this gene is essential for the vegetative growth of yeast cells. The act4 mutants exhibit heterogenous morphological phenotypes. We hypothesize that Act4 may have multiple roles in the cell cycle. The sequence has been deposited in the Genome Sequence Data Base under Accession Number L37111.

Construction of a cosmid contig and of an EcoRI restriction map of yeast chromosome X

We report here the construction of a complete physical map of the chromosome X of yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Fragments resulting from partial Sau3AI digestion of DNA from a diploid strain derived from S288C were ligated to linearized pWE15, a cosmid vector with T3 and T7 promoters. Another library, made in the cosmid vector pOU61 cos, that lacks T3 and T7 promoters, was also used as a source of target clones. Chromosome-X-specific clones were sorted out by hybridization with radiolabelled pulse-field-gel-purified chromosome X as a probe. Then, 254 cosmids were ordered by walking from one to another by hybridization with end-specific T3 or T7 RNA transcripts as probes. The construction was put to the test by hybridization with a battery of chromosome X gene markers, that showed that the physical map and the genetic map were colinear. The validity of the contig was further strengthened by the results of chromosome nested fractionation with meganuclease I-SceI. An EcoRI restriction map of the contig enabled further verification and measurement of the total length of the contig, that was found to be approximately 700 kb in size. In addition to providing a base for the ongoing yeast genome sequencing project, the physical map can be used to map any sequence belonging to chromosome X.

Analysis of a 62 kb DNA sequence of chromosome X reveals 36 open reading frames and a gene cluster with a counterpart on chromosome XI

We have sequenced a 61,989 bp stretch located between genes RAD7 and FIP1 of Saccharomyces cerevisiae chromosome X. This stretch contains 36 open reading frames (ORFs) of at least 100 codons. Fourteen of these correspond to sequences previously published as HIT1, CDC8, YAP17, CBF1, NAT1, RPA12, CCT5, TOR1, RFC2, PEM2, CDC11, MIR1, STE18 and GRR1. The proteins deduced from four ORFs (YJR059w, YJR065c, YJR075w, YJR078w) have significant similarity to proteins of known function from yeast or other organisms, including S. cerevisiae serine/threonine‐specific protein kinase, Schizosaccharomyces pombe Act2 protein, S. cerevisiae mannosyltransferase OCH1 protein and mouse indoleamine 2,3‐dioxygenase, respectively. Four of the remaining 18 ORFs have similarity to proteins with unknown function, six are weakly similar to other known sequences, while another eight exhibit no similarity to any known sequence. In addition, three tRNA genes have been recognized. Three genes clustered within 22 kb (YJR059w, YJR061w and TOR1) have counterparts arranged within 15 kb on the left arm of chromosome XI. The sequence has been deposited in the Genome Sequence Data Base under Accession Number L47993.