Tyrosination-detyrosination of tubulin and microtubules during the development of chick erythrocytes.

Chicken erythroid cells at different stages of maturation were incubated with [14C]tyrosine to analyze the incorporation of this amino acid into the COOH-terminus of alpha-tubulin. The incorporated radioactivity was determined in the microtubule and nonassembled tubulin pools. At all maturation stages, nonassembled tubulin was more labeled than microtubules. Microtubules were significantly labeled in proerythroblasts, labeled to a lesser extent in erythroblasts and not labeled at all in mature erythrocytes. We also studied the distribution of the tyrosinating and detyrosinating enzymes, tubulin:tyrosine ligase and tubulin carboxypeptidase, respectively, between the assembled and nonassembled tubulin fractions. Tubulin:tyrosine ligase behaved as a soluble entity at all maturation stages, whereas tubulin carboxypeptidase was found partially associated with microtubules in chicken proerythroblasts and completely soluble in mature erythrocytes. The marginal band of toad erythrocytes was examined by immunofluorescence using antibodies specific to tyrosinated and to detyrosinated tubulin. This marginal band which is mainly tyrosinated could be detyrosinated by exposure of these cells, previously permeabilized, to exogenously supplied tubulin carboxypeptidase. Toad erythrocytes contained soluble tubulin carboxypeptidase which showed an activity similar to that of chicken erythrocytes.

Tubulin, but not microtubules, is the substrate for tubulin:tyrosine ligase in mature avian erythrocytes.

Chicken erythrocytes, which contain a marginal band of microtubules, were used to study the influence of the aggregation state of tubulin on the post-translational incorporation of tyrosine into the alpha-tubulin subunit. We found that the incorporation of [14C]tyrosine occurs almost exclusively into the nonassembled tubulin pool. The marginal band was practically not labeled. The low incorporation into microtubules was not due to the lack of tubulin with acceptor capacity since after cold-induced disassembly, an additional amount of [14C]tyrosine could be incorporated. 14C-Tyrosinated tubulin of the nonassembled pool could not be incorporated into microtubules of the marginal band after prolonged incubation at 37 degrees C or when the marginal band was regenerated after cold-induced depolymerization. In erythrocytes, tubulin:tyrosine ligase behaved as a soluble entity when the cells were lysed under microtubule-preserving conditions.