Ubiquitin and ubiquitination in cells from the marine sponge Geodia cydonium.

1994

Marine sponges, e.g. Geodia cydonium, have been intensively used to investigate the biochemical and molecular biological basis of cell-cell- and cell-matrix adhesion. It has been shown that a family of galactose-specific lectins, which are present in the extracellular space of G. cydonium, is a main component involved in cell-matrix adhesion in the sponge system. In the present study it is outlined that the purified 16-kDa lectin-1 binds to a 67-kDa membrane-associated protein. This lectin-binding protein undergoes mono- and diubiquitination after incubation of dissociated sponge cells with the homologous aggregation factor (AF), a molecule involved in cell-cell adhesion. The gene coding fo…