Working strokes produced by curling protofilaments at disassembling microtubule tips can be biochemically tuned and vary with species.

ABSTRACT: The disassembly of microtubules can generate force and drive intracellular motility. During mitosis, for example, chromosomes remain persistently attached via kinetochores to the tips of disassembling microtubules, which pull the sister chromatids apart. According to the conformational wave hypothesis, such force generation requires that protofilaments curl outward from the disassembling tips to exert pulling force directly on kinetochores. Rigorously testing this idea will require modifying the mechanical and energetic properties of curling protofilaments, but no way to do so has yet been described. Here, by direct measurement of working strokes generated in vitro by curling protofilaments, we show that their mechanical energy output can be increased by adding magnesium, and that yeast mi

SUBMITTER: Murray LE 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9799970 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature