Insights into allosteric control of microtubule dynamics from a buried β-tubulin mutation that causes faster growth and slower shrinkage.

ABSTRACT: αβ-tubulin subunits cycle through a series of different conformations in the polymer lattice during microtubule growing and shrinking. How these allosteric responses to different tubulin:tubulin contacts contribute to microtubule dynamics, and whether the contributions are evolutionarily conserved, remains poorly understood. Here, we sought to determine whether the microtubule-stabilizing effects (slower shrinking) of the β:T238A mutation we previously observed using yeast αβ-tubulin would generalize to mammalian microtubules. Using recombinant human microtubules as a model, we found that the mutation caused slow microtubule shrinking, indicating that this effect of the mutation is indeed conserved. However, unlike in yeast, β:T238A human microtubules grew faster than wild-type and the mut

SUBMITTER: Ye X 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7255507 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature