Both ?-tubulin genes are transcriptionally active in Stylonchyia lemnae

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Abstract
Macronuclear DNA of the hypotrichous ciliate Stylonychia lemnae contains two size-classes of molecules coding for α-tubulin. Analysis of their coding regions demonstrates that these two size-classes represent two different functional α-tubulin genes, α1 and α2; a comparison of these regions shows a 97% homology in their nucleotide sequence and 98.5% in their amino acid sequence. S1-mapping experiments indicate that both α1-and α2-tubulin genes are transcribed. The 5′ and 3′ noncoding regions flanking the α1- and α2-tubulin genes differ in both length and nucleotide sequence within one strain. When different strains are compared, however, identical non-coding regions and slightly varying coding regions can be found in DNA molecules containing the α1-tubulin genes.