Parkin-co-regulated gene (PACRG) product interacts with tubulin and microtubules

Parkin-co-regulated gene (PACRG) is a gene that shares a bidirectional promoter with Parkinson’s disease-related Parkin/Park2 gene. Recently, the PACRG gene product was implicated in the function of flagella. However, its exact function remains unknown. Here, I assessed the interaction between PACRG and tubulin. Co-sedimentation experiments revealed that PACRG directly binds to microtubules and α/β-tubulin heterodimers with high affinity. Microscopic studies showed that PACRG bundles microtubules and forms branched aggregates with unpolymerized tubulin dimers. The amino acid sequence of the microtubule-binding region of PACRG is highly conserved among various organisms, suggesting that tubulin binding is a basic property of PACRG.Structured summaryMINT-6439731, MINT-6439753, MINT-6439768:PACRG (genbank_protein_gi:169219363), tubulin alpha (uniprotkb:P02550), tubulin beta (uniprotkb:Q2XVP4) bind (MI:0407) by cosedimentation (MI:0027)MINT-6439796:PACRG (genbank_protein_gi:169219363), tubulin alpha (uniprotkb:P02550), tubulin beta (uniprotkb:Q2XVP4) bind (MI:0407) by pull-down (MI:0096)