Caenorhabditis elegans T05H10.5, a homologue of yeast ubiqutin fusion degradation protein, is expressed throughout the nervous system and in the gut.

Ao W. Pilgrim D.

Department of Biological Sciences, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, T6G 2E9, Canada.

C. elegans UNC-45 is a component of muscle thick filaments and co-localizes with myosin heavy chain B in body wall muscles. The N-terminal of UNC-45 contains three tetratricopeptide repeats (TPR) adn its C-terminal shows limited similarity to fungal proteins. In our yeast two-hybrid screens using unc-45 cDNA as a bait, we detected that UNC-45 interacts with T05H10.5 and the TRP domain of UNC-45 is sufficient for that interaction. The predicted T05H10.5 gene encodes a 113.2 KD protein that is a homologue of yeast ubiquitin fusion degradation protein (UFD2). We found that the GFP reporter driven by T05H10.5 promoter is expressed throughout the nervous system and also strongly in the gut of the adult worm. The UFD2-like proteins are highly conserved from yeast to human and its putative human homologue is expressed in brain tissues. Our results indicates that T05H10.5 is a nerve cell and gut-specific gene and may interact with TRP-containing proteins (like UNC-45).