A calcineurin-B-encoding gene expressed during differentiation of the amoeboflagellate Naegleria gruberi contains two introns

Abstract

One of two similar genes in the unicellular eukaryote Naegleria gruberi is shown to encode calcineurin B (CnB), the regulatory subunit of calcium-calmodulin-regulated protein phosphatase 2B. Over a span of 156 amino acids, excluding divergent N-termini, the encoded sequence shows 62% identity with vertebrate CnB, and also shows sequence elements specific, among calcium-binding proteins, to CnB. In contrast, the sequence shows only 23% identity with N. gruberi flagellar calmodulin. CNB mRNA is readily detected in amoebae; its abundance increases fourfold during differentiation to flagellates, reaches a peak at 50–70 min, when flagella are forming, and then declines. A genomic clone matches an expressed cDNA, except that it is interrupted by two phase I introns. The position of one intron, which separates the divergent N-terminal domain from the four calcium-binding domains (EF hands), is shared with a yeast CNB gene; the other is located in the central helix between the two pairs of calcium-binding loops; features that support an ancient origin. These introns, the first found in protein-coding genes of Naegleria, are flanked by characteristic splice junction sequences. N. gruberi CnB also shares similarities with recoveries. The finding in a protist of a CNB gene that contains two introns separating functional domains, shares similarities to recoveries and shows increased expression during differentiation is provocative. If the phylogeny of major groups derived from ribosomal RNA is accepted, Naegleria is among the earliest branching eukaryotes known to contain canonical pre-mRNA introns.