Presence of calmodulin in Tetrahymena.

Abstract
Ca-dependent affinity chromatography on phenothiazine-Sepharose 4B was used to isolate a pure protein from the ciliate T. pyriformis. This protein was identified as calmodulin by demonstrating 3 of the Ca-dependent activities attributed to calmodulins. Tetrahymena calmodulin also has physicochemical properties similar to those of the previously characterized mammalian, coelenterate and plant proteins, except for a lower MW (15,000) and slightly different CNBr fragments compared to bovine brain calmodulin. Calmodulin is a constituent of demembranated Tetrahymena cilia from which it can be extracted with the crude dynein fraction. Sucrose density gradient fractionation indicated its presence in fractions containing the 14S dynein ATPase. The essential properties of calmodulin probably were highly conserved during much of eukaryotic evolution, and calmodulin may play a role in the control of ciliary motility in Tetrahymena.

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