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Microtubules are polymers of tubulin that form part of the cytoskeleton and provide structure and shape to eukaryotic cells. Microtubules can be as long as 50 micrometres, as wide as 23 to 27 nm and have an inner diameter between 11 and 15 nm. They are formed by the polymerization of a dimer of two globular proteins, alpha and beta tubulin into protofilaments that can then associate laterally to form a hollow tube, the microtubule. The most common form of a microtubule consists of 13 protofilaments in the tubular arrangement.
Tubulin in molecular biology can refer either to the tubulin protein superfamily of globular proteins, or one of the member proteins of that superfamily. α- and β-tubulins polymerize into microtubules, a major component of the eukaryotic cytoskeleton. Microtubules function in many essential cellular processes, including mitosis. Tubulin-binding drugs kill cancerous cells by inhibiting microtubule dynamics, which are required for DNA segregation and therefore cell division.
Timothy John Mitchison is a cell biologist and systems biologist and Hasib Sabbagh Professor of Systems Biology at Harvard Medical School in the United States. He is known for his discovery, with Marc Kirschner, of dynamic instability in microtubules, for studies of the mechanism of cell division, and for contributions to chemical biology.
Katanin is a microtubule-severing AAA protein. It is named after the Japanese sword called a katana. Katanin is a heterodimeric protein first discovered in sea urchins. It contains a 60 kDa ATPase subunit, encoded by KATNA1, which functions to sever microtubules. This subunit requires ATP and the presence of microtubules for activation. The second 80 kDA subunit, encoded by KATNB1, regulates the activity of the ATPase and localizes the protein to centrosomes. Electron microscopy shows that katanin forms 14–16 nm rings in its active oligomerized state on the walls of microtubules.
In molecular biology, treadmilling is a phenomenon observed within protein filaments of the cytoskeletons of many cells, especially in actin filaments and microtubules. It occurs when one end of a filament grows in length while the other end shrinks, resulting in a section of filament seemingly "moving" across a stratum or the cytosol. This is due to the constant removal of the protein subunits from these filaments at one end of the filament, while protein subunits are constantly added at the other end. Treadmilling was discovered by Wegner, who defined the thermodynamic and kinetic constraints. Wegner recognized that: “The equilibrium constant (K) for association of a monomer with a polymer is the same at both ends, since the addition of a monomer to each end leads to the same polymer.”; a simple reversible polymer can’t treadmill; ATP hydrolysis is required. GTP is hydrolyzed for microtubule treadmilling.
Eva Nogales is a Spanish-American biophysicist at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and a professor at the University of California, Berkeley, where she served as head of the Division of Biochemistry, Biophysics and Structural Biology of the Department of Molecular and Cell Biology (2015–2020). She is a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator.
In cell biology, microtubule nucleation is the event that initiates de novo formation of microtubules (MTs). These filaments of the cytoskeleton typically form through polymerization of α- and β-tubulin dimers, the basic building blocks of the microtubule, which initially interact to nucleate a seed from which the filament elongates.
The human gene SPAST codes for the microtubule-severing protein of the same name, commonly known as spastin.
In enzymology, a microtubule-severing ATPase (EC 3.6.4.3) is an enzyme that catalyzes the chemical reaction
In enzymology, an alpha-tubulin N-acetyltransferase is an enzyme which is encoded by the ATAT1 gene.
Tubulin alpha-4A chain is a protein that in humans is encoded by the TUBA4A gene.
Katanin p80 WD40-containing subunit B1 is a protein that in humans is encoded by the KATNB1 gene.
Katanin p60 ATPase-containing subunit A1 is an enzyme that in humans is encoded by the KATNA1 gene.
Jennifer Lippincott-Schwartz is a Senior Group Leader at Howard Hughes Medical Institute's Janelia Research Campus and a founding member of the Neuronal Cell Biology Program at Janelia. Previously, she was the Chief of the Section on Organelle Biology in the Cell Biology and Metabolism Program, in the Division of Intramural Research in the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development at the National Institutes of Health from 1993 to 2016. Lippincott-Schwartz received her PhD from Johns Hopkins University, and performed post-doctoral training with Richard Klausner at the NICHD, NIH in Bethesda, Maryland.
Ronald David Vale ForMemRS is an American biochemist and cell biologist. He is a professor at the Department of Cellular and Molecular Pharmacology, University of California, San Francisco. His research is focused on motor proteins, particularly kinesin and dynein. He was awarded the Canada Gairdner International Award for Biomedical Research in 2019, the Shaw Prize in Life Science and Medicine in 2017 together with Ian Gibbons, and the Albert Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research in 2012 alongside Michael Sheetz and James Spudich. He is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and a member of the National Academy of Sciences. He was the president of the American Society for Cell Biology in 2012. He has also been an investigator at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute since 1995. In 2019, Vale was named executive director of the Janelia Research Campus and a vice president of HHMI; his appointment began in early 2020.
Zena Werb was a professor and the Vice Chair of Anatomy at the University of California, San Francisco. She was also the co-leader of the Cancer, Immunity, and Microenvironment Program at the Hellen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center and a member of the Executive Committee of the Sabre-Sandler Asthma Basic Research Center at UCSF. Her research focused on features of the microenvironment surrounding cells, with particular interest in the extracellular matrix and the role of its protease enzymes in cell signaling.
Don W. Cleveland is an American cancer biologist and neurobiologist.
Dr. Herbert Weissbach NAS NAI AAM is an American biochemist/molecular biologist.
Jin Zhang is a Chinese-American biochemist. She is a professor of pharmacology, chemistry and biochemistry, and biomedical engineering at the University of California, San Diego.
Trisha Nell Davis is an American biochemist, the current Earl Davie/ZymoGenetics Chair of the department of biochemistry at the University of Washington. Her early research focused on Calmodulin, though the primary focus of her lab has since shifted to the molecular machinery of cell division in budding yeast, especially the microtubule organizing centers and the kinetochores.
References
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- 1 2 3 Spencer, Timothy K. (2017-04-13). "Antonina Roll-Mecak: Decoding the secrets of tubulin complexity". Journal of Cell Biology. 216 (5): 1208–1209. doi:10.1083/jcb.201703011. ISSN 0021-9525. PMC 5412576 . PMID 28408403. S2CID 4061992.
- 1 2 3 4 Roll-Mecak, Antonina; Pierce, William (6 June 2016). "ASCB-Gibco Emerging Leader Prize Essay". ascb.org. Retrieved 7 July 2022.
- 1 2 Physics, American Institute of (2021-09-24). "Antonina Roll-Mecak". www.aip.org. Retrieved 2022-06-30.
- 1 2 3 "About Antonina | NINDS Division of Intramural Research". research.ninds.nih.gov. Retrieved 2022-07-05.
- ↑ "NINDS's Roll-Mecak Is 2016 Blavatnik Finalist" (PDF). NIH Record. 68 (23): 10. 4 November 2016 – via nihrecord.nih.gov/.
- ↑ "2023 Award winners". Biochemical Society. Archived from the original on 2022-12-02. Retrieved 2022-07-07.
