The macronuclear polyubiquitin gene of the ciliate Tetrahymena pyriformis

The presence of ubiquitin in ciliates was first demonstrated in Tetrahymena pyriformis. One clone--pTU2--presents two incomplete open reading frames and the putative polyubiquitin genes have been shown to be highly similar to those of other organisms. To further analyze the organization of this multigene family, several fragments of macronuclear DNA were cloned. We report here the isolation and characterization of one genomic clone (pTU20) that encodes a polyubiquitin gene (TU20) with five tandem repeats and presenting only one extra triplet CAA (Gln) upstream from the TGA. The promoter region of TU20 also presents a consensus heat shock element. The specific detection of RNA species with a synthetic oligonucleotide probe reveals that it corresponds to the 1.8 kb mRNA species whose expression is increased by temperature stress.