Impaired flagellar regeneration due to uncoordinated expression of two divergent actin genes in Chlamydomonas

Chlamydomonas has two actin genes: one encoding a conventional actin (90% amino acid identity with mammalian actin) and the other a highly divergent actin (NAP; 64% identity). The expression of the two genes is regulated in a mutually exclusive manner. Thus, ida5, a mutant that lacks the conventional actin (CrA) gene, expresses NAP abundantly, whereas wild-type cells express NAP only negligibly under normal conditions. To explore the physiological significance of the two actins, chimeric genes with the 5' upstream region of one gene replaced by that of the other were constructed and used to transform ida5. The transformant (TF5) with a chimeric clone comprising the 5'-untranslated region from the NAP gene and the CrA-encoding sequence recovered the dyneins missing in ida5 and showed almost normal motility. After deflagellation of this transformant, however, only about 30% of cells grew flagella, unlike wild-type cells, >80% of which displayed reflagellation. Transformant TF10, which contains the CrA upstream region and NAP coding region, underwent reflagellation normally, as did the parent strain, ida5. In TF5, the mRNA level of both CrA and NAP was increased greatly during reflagellation. In light of the recent finding that NAP mRNA is expressed transiently upon reflagellation in wild-type cells, the described results suggest that 1) the expression of NAP mRNA is indispensable for flagellation and 2) robust expression of CrA may inhibit proper flagellation by interfering with the function of NAP in the early stages of reflagellation.