The outer arm dynein -heavy chains of sea urchin sperm flagella and embryonic cilia are different
Ogawa, K.; Yokota, E.; Hamada, Y.; Wada, S.; Okuno, M.; Nakajima, Y.
Cell Motility and the Cytoskeleton 161: 58-67
1990
ISSN/ISBN: 0886-1544 DOI: 10.1002/cm.970160108
Accession: 021964835
Sea urchin sperm outer arm dynein is a multi-subunit protein composed of heavy chains, intermediate chains, and light chains. We prepared monoclonal and affinty-purified polyclonal antibodies to heavy and intermediate chain subunits and examined whether the embryonic ciliary axonemes of the same species contain the polypeptides sharing epitopes with them. Ciliary axonemes contained a high molecular weight polypeptide with the exact same mobility as flagellar .beta.-heavy chain. This polypeptide also shared epitopes with it. In contrast, no polypeptide had the exact same molecular weight as flagellar .alpha.-heavy chain and shared epitopes with it. Western blots showed that ciliary axonemes also contain three polypeptides sharing epitopes with the respective flagellar intermediate chain. The present results revealed that the .alpha.-heavy chains of flagellar and ciliary outer arm dyneins are different.