A Chlamydomonas Homologue of the Putative Murine t Complex Distorter Tctex-2 Is an Outer Arm Dynein Light Chain

Molecular analysis of a 19,000-M_r protein from the Chlamydomonas flagellum reveals that it is homologous to the t complex–encoded protein Tctex-2, which is a candidate for one of the distorter products that cause the extreme transmission ratio distortion (meiotic drive) of the murine t complex. The 19,000-M_r protein is extracted from the axoneme with 0.6 M NaCl and comigrates with the outer dynein arm in sucrose density gradients. This protein also is specifically missing in axonemes prepared from a mutant that does not assemble the outer arm. These data raise the possibility that Tctex-2 is a sperm flagellar dynein component. Combined with the recent identification of Tctex-1 (another distorter candidate) as a light chain of cytoplasmic dynein, these results lead to a biochemical model for how differential defects in spermiogenesis that result in the phenomenon of meiotic drive might be generated in wild-type vs t-bearing sperm.