2. Genome Project Planning -
coordinated by Ed Orias at UCSB
• 8/99 Workshop in Ciliate Genomics
• 10/99 First Meeting of Tetrahymena Genome
Project Steering Committee
• 10/00 Second Meeting of Tetrahymena
Genome Project Steering Committee
• 8/01 Third Meeting of Tetrahymena Genome
Project Steering Committee
TIGR
5. What is Tetrahymena
• Fresh-water single-celled protozoan
• Member of the alveolate group - ciliate
subgroup
• Swimming/mobile
• Free-living
• Grown in pure culture
• Dual nuclei - somatic and germ line
TIGR
8. QuickTime™ and aTIFF (Uncompressed) decompressorare needed to see this picture.
TIGR
9. Cilia Cover the Surface of Tetrahymena, Allowing
It to Move and to Sweep Food to Its Gullet
Cilia powering cell movement
TIGR
10. Why Tetrahymena?
• Model alveolate and ciliate
• Genetic unicellular eukaryotic model
• Fundamental biology of eukaryotes
• Robust and novel molecular genetic tools
• Large research community
TIGR
11. Examples of Major Discoveries
from Studies of Tetrahymena
• Dynein motors
• RNA mediated catalysis
• Telomeres and telomerase
• Histone acetylation regulation of
transcription
TIGR
12. Fig 8-33 Telomerase carries a short RNA molecule that acts as a template for the
addition of the complementary DNA sequence at the 3’ end of the double
helix. In the ciliate Tetrahymena, the DNA sequence added is TTGGGG
TIGR
13. Self-Splicing of
Tetrahymena rRNA
(group I intron)
• GTP attacks A at 5’
end of intron
• Exon 1 uses 3’OH to
attack intron/exon 2
phosphodiester bond
• Splicing releases linear
intron
• Intron loses
nucleotides at 5’ end
TIGR Fig 14.45, Weaver
14. Tetrahymena as a Model Alveolate
• Ciliates are sister group for apicomplexans
• Model for studies of ciliates (e.g., Ich,
Parmecium)
• Free-living, pure culture, non-pathogenic
• Heterologous expression of Alveolate genes
• Large research community (~100 groups)
TIGR
15. Tetrahymena Uses for
Fundamental Biology of Eukaryotes
• Cell motility
• Programmed DNA rearrangements
• Regulated secretion
• Phagocytosis
• Tubulins
• Histones
• Telomeres maintenance and function
• Many genes, processes and cellular components
not found in yeasts
TIGR
17. Macronuclear Genome
• Little repetitive DNA
• 180 Mbp genome
• Little evidence for large duplications
• No centromeres
• Few and small introns
• No alternative splicing reported
• Genes are lower At (63%) than rest of the genome
(83%)
TIGR
18. Tools in Tetrahymena
• Conventional genetic tools
– Conjugation, Genetic crossing, Inducible self-
fertilizatoin
• Advanced genetic tools
– Transformation, Gene disruption, Gene replacement
– Gene overexpression, Ribosome antisense repression
• Ease of use
– Grows fast (1.5 h doubling) in pure culture
– Large cell size
– Large T° range for growth
– Stoarge in liquid N2
– Large scale sub-cellular compartment fractionation
TIGR
19. Tetrahymena Genomic Resources
• Genetic maps (for mic and mac)
• Physical maps
• EST projects
– Protist EST project in Canada - 50,000 ESTs
– EST project at U. Chicago
– Gene index at TIGR
• Genome wide libraries
TIGR
20. Other Ciliate Projects
• Paramecium genomic survey (Dr. Linda Sperling,
Centre de Genetique Moleculaire, CNRS, France)
• European rumen ciliate cDNA project (C. Jamie
Newbold, Rowett Research Institute, Aberdeen,
UK)
• Oxytricha (Spirotrich ciliate) micronuclear BAC
project (Laura Landweber, Princeton University);
• Ichthyophthirius EST sequencing proposal
(Theodore G. Clark, Cornell University
TIGR
21. Tetrahymena Genome Project
• Strain selection:
– inbred strain B- strain of choice for molecular genetic work
– Strain SB210
• Macronuclear DNA
– Most of the repeats already removed
– Mitochondrial DNA can be mostly removed
– Working on removing rDNA
• Small and medium insert libraries made
• Due to high AT content large inserts are difficult to
construct
• Proposals in review by NSF (3x) and NIGMS (5x plus
database)
TIGR
22. Bioinformatics Plans
• Gene finding, gene indices, ESTs
• Functional annotation
• Orthologs with mammals/animals
– Especially those not in yeast
• Orthologs with Apicomplexans
• Phylogeny
TIGR
23. Tetrahymena Genome Database
• Phenotypes associated with gene knockouts,
replacements and other types of mutations.
• Gene regulation information from the literature.
• Post-translational modifications.
• Linkage & physical maps
• DNA polymorphisms
• Experimental protocols
• Links to other sites
TIGR