High impact information on mec-7

• Mutations in the gene mec-7 result in touch-insensitive animals whose touch cells lack the 15-protofilament microtubules [1].
• Selective expression of the dop-1 gene in mechanosensory neurons using the mec-7 promoter rescues the mechanosensory deficit in dop-1 mutant animals [2].
• Inside the cell, specialized 15-protofilament microtubules composed of mec-12 alpha-tubulin and mec-7 beta-tubulin may be linked to the mechanosensitive channel by stomatin-homologous MEC-2 [3].
• The antibodies and the mec-7-lacZ transgene were also used to examine mec-7 expression in mutants affecting the generation, differentiation or maintenance of the touch neurons [4].
• Both a mec-7-lacZ reporter gene and affinity-purified anti-mec-7 antibodies were used to show that mec-7 is expressed primarily in the touch neurons [4].

Biological context of mec-7

• In addition, some mec-7 alleles showed allele-specific, dominant suppression of the mec-15 touch-insensitive (Mec) phenotype [5].
• The predicted beta-tubulin amino acid sequence is 89%, 94%, 90% and 88% identical to the chicken beta 2, and the Caenorhabditis elegans ben-1, tub-1 and mec-7 gene products, respectively [6].
• Mutations in the Caenorhabditis elegans beta-tubulin gene mec-7: effects on microtubule assembly and stability and on tubulin autoregulation [7].
• Three of the four loss-of-function, missense mutations result in elevated mec-7 message levels, suggesting a defect in tubulin autoregulation that may be attributable to a loss in the ability to form heterodimers [7].
• A genomic library was constructed and screened by hybridization with a Haemonchus contortus beta-tubulin cDNA fragment which recognizes several B. pahangi beta-tubulin sequences, including sequences which correspond to the previously characterized beta 1-tubulin gene [8].

Other interactions of mec-7

• These data suggest that UNC-86/VP16 increases the expression of mec-3 and mec-7 to compensate for the decreased activities of mutant MEC-3 or MEC-7 proteins [9].
• Expression of the beta 2-tubulin gene is developmentally regulated and the message is found predominantly in adult male worms, whereas the beta 1-tubulin gene is expressed in microfilariae and approximately equal levels of the transcript are found in male and female adult worms [8].

References