Topography of Chlamydomonas: Fine Structure and Polypeptide Components of the Gametic Flagellar Membrane Surface and the Cell Wall

Surface polypeptide components of the flagellar membrane of Chlamydomonas reinhardi Dang. gametes are identified by their accessibility to in-vivo vectoral labeling by glucose oxidase-coupled lactoperoxidase-dependent (125)I iodination. Vectoral labeling is accomplished without observable adverse effects on cell viability or gametic function. Flagella isolated from labeled wild-type cells carry about 3% of the total incorporated label, which is found by one-dimensional sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis to be distributed among 16 identifiable polypeptide bands. The most prominent surface-labeled species migrates in the Mr (relative molecular weight) 350 k region of the gel; each of the remaining iodinated polypeptides, which range in Mr from 25 k to 500 k, carries only a small proportion of incorporated label. To determine which polypeptides are unique to the flagellum and which are contaminants from the cell wall, wild-type profiles were compared with those of mutant strains and of mechanically isolated cell walls. Identification of contaminants was also facilitated by two-dimensional peptide mapping. We conclude that only 11 of the labeled bands are contributed by flagellar polypeptides; the remaining five bands are shown to be contaminants from the cell wall, and additional cell-wall polypeptides are found to co-migrate with flagellar species. A polypeptide designated as a possible membrane tubulin in preliminary studies is shown here to be different from tubulin in its peptide map. The 11 polypeptides assigned as specific flagellar surface components are candidate participants in such biological events as sexual adhesion, flagellar surface motility, and sensory signalling.