Developmental expression of Xenopus myosin 1d and identification of a myo1d tail homology that overlaps TH1.

Xenopus laevis myosin 1d (XlMyo1d) is a member of the myosin I class, subclass 4. Members of this class are single headed, bind calmodulin light chains and have lipid binding domains in their tails. The rat myo1d homologue has been implicated in endosome vesicle recycling in epithelial cells. Mutations in the Drosophila myosin 1d homologue cause situs inversus in the abdomen. The XlMyo1d cDNA has been cloned and the derived amino acid sequence is 80% identical to the rat and human homologues. Sequence comparison revealed a novel isoform-specific tail homology embedded in the Tail Homology 1 (TH1) domain characteristic of myosin I isoforms. Western blot analysis using a polyclonal antibody raised against an isoform-specific peptide showed that the protein is present in eggs and levels increase at early neurula through tadpole stages. Whole mount in situ hybridization using a probe containing the 5'UTR (untranslated region) showed that XlMyo1d mRNA is expressed in neural tube, pre-somitic mesoderm, somites and all three segments of cranial neural crest cells during their migration. Sections of the in situ hybridizations revealed that during somitogenesis, XlMyo1d mRNA was localized to a stripe overlapping the nuclear region of somites during early tadpole stages.