An estimation of the soluble tubulin content in Tetrahymena cells of normal and of size-altered phenotype.

The amount of soluble tubulin in a temperature-sensitive (ts) size mutant of the ciliate Tetrahymena was measured in a variety of physiological conditions. For this purpose a competitive ELISA assay for tubulin was set up. The assay is based on an antiserum against Tetrahymena axonemal tubulin. Characterization of the antiserum shows its mono-specificity towards tubulin as well as its potential to recognize tubulin from a wide variety of cellular sources and organisms. After fractionation of the cells into soluble material, cold-labile and cold-resistant structures, we found very little tubulin soluble (less than 20% of the total), while most of the tubulin is polymerized, especially into cortical structures. Prolonged starvation does not alter the tubulin content. During the culture growth cycle the percentage of the soluble tubulin increases. Growing the ts mutant at high temperature to a large cell size will also increase the pool of soluble tubulin to a large extent. Only under this condition is the amount of soluble tubulin about equal to that fixed in cilia. The tubulins in the three different compartments are polymorphic and have a different metabolism. This is indicated by the much higher specific activity of soluble tubulin compared with the structurally bound material. In agreement, the half-life of the soluble tubulin is shorter than that of the cortical tubulin.