Changes in seam number and location induce holes within microtubules assembled from porcine brain tubulin and in Xenopus egg cytoplasmic extracts.

ABSTRACT: Microtubules are tubes of about 25 nm in diameter that are critically involved in a variety of cellular functions, including motility, compartmentalization, and division. They are considered as pseudo-helical polymers whose constituent αβ-tubulin heterodimers share lateral homotypic interactions, except at one unique region called the seam. Here, we used a segmented sub-tomogram averaging strategy to reassess this paradigm and analyze the organization of the αβ-tubulin heterodimers in microtubules assembled from purified porcine brain tubulin in the presence of GTP and GMPCPP, and in Xenopus egg cytoplasmic extracts. We find that in almost all conditions, microtubules incorporate variable protofilament and/or tubulin subunit helical-start numbers, as well as variable numbers of seam

SUBMITTER: Guyomar C 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9788831 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature