Localization of sea urchin egg cytoplasmic dynein in mitotic apparatus studied by using a monoclonal antibody against sea urchin sperm flagellar 21S dynein

Abstract

AbstractA monoclonal antibody against sea urchin (Hemicentrotus pulcherrimus) sperm flagellar 21S dynein was characterized and sued to identify and localized cytoplasmic dynein of sea urchin eggs by the methods of immunoblotting and indirect immunofluorescence microscopy. D57, the monoclonal antibody used in this study, was directed to the Aβ polypeptide of 21S dynein. D57 stained sperm flagella specifically but did not inhibit Mg‐ATPase activity of 21S dynein, its recombination ability with NaCl‐extracted axonemes, or the movement of demembranated sperm. D57 cross‐reacted with sea urchin egg cytoplasmic dynein. High molecular weight cytoplasmic dynein polypeptide which had the same electrophoretic mobility s flagellar dynein. A chains was the only polypeptide that reacted with D57 in the crude extract from unfertilized sea urchin eggs. Indirect immunofluorescence observations showed that the mitotic apparatus was stained most intensely in the frozen sections and lysed eggs. In the mitotic apparatus isolated at metaphase, the half spindles were stained more strongly than the astral regions. The regions near chromosomes in the half spindle appeared to be stained particularly. Staining of the interzone was also observed in the mitotic spindle isolated at anaphase. Comparison of the staining patterns for cytoplasmic dynein with that for tubulin suggested that cytoplasmic dynein was localized where microtubules were densely organized, but its distribution may not necessarily be identical with that of microtubules.