Figure 1. Features and mutants of the
vps-52 gene. A) (Top) Schematic representation of the intron-exon structure of the C. elegans
vps-52 gene. The two studied alleles are indicated (the allele
qbc4 is a non-sense mutation and the allele
ok853 is a frameshift deletion). VPS-52 contains predicted coiled coils stretches, but no distinct protein domains have been identified. (Bottom)
vps-52 is conserved from worms to humans. ClustalW alignment (edited with Boxshade program) of human (Hs) and C. elegans (Ce) VPS-52 orthologs, the proteins share a 56% of sequence similarity. The amino acid changes introduced by the two alleles are indicated. B-D) Expression of a single copy insertion of Pvps-52::
vps-52::mCherry::
vps-52 39UTR (referred to as Si[
vps-52]). B) The expression of VPS-52 in early embryos. Micrographs of Nomarski (left panel) and mCherry fluorescence (right panel). Scale bar measures 20 mm. C-D) The
vps-52 gene is widely expressed in somatic tissues. C) VPS-52 expression in the vulva and somatic gonad. Top panel: micrograph of merged Nomarski with mCherry fluorescence pictures. Bottom panel: micrograph of mCherry fluorescence. The VPS-52 protein localizes to the cytoplasm within punctated intracellular foci. Scale bar measures 20 mm. D) Expression of VPS-52::mCherry in the hypodermal cells. Micrographs of Nomarski (top) and merged GFP and mCherry fluorescence (bottom). Tagged VPS-52 (in red) is expressed in the cytoplasm around the seam cells nuclei (in green, GFP tagged). Scale bar measures 20 um.