Lecture

Microtubules: Structure and Regulation

Graph Chat

Chat with Graph Search

Ask any question about EPFL courses, lectures, exercises, research, news, etc. or try the example questions below.

DISCLAIMER: The Graph Chatbot is not programmed to provide explicit or categorical answers to your questions. Rather, it transforms your questions into API requests that are distributed across the various IT services officially administered by EPFL. Its purpose is solely to collect and recommend relevant references to content that you can explore to help you answer your questions.

Description

This lecture covers the structure and regulation of microtubules, focusing on the dynamic polymers of tubulin dimers, the role of GTP hydrolysis, nucleation, and the assembly process. It also discusses the functions of y-tubulin, MTOC, and accessory proteins in microtubule organization. The instructor highlights the mechanisms of catastrophe and rescue, as well as the impact of various proteins like stathmin, XMAP215, and kinesin-13 on microtubule dynamics.

Official source

Related concepts (30)

Microtubule

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

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.

Mitotic inhibitor

A mitotic inhibitor is a drug that inhibits mitosis, or cell division. These drugs disrupt microtubules, which are structures that pull the chromosomes apart when a cell divides. Mitotic inhibitors are used in cancer treatment, because cancer cells are able to grow and eventually spread through the body (metastasize) through continuous mitotic division. Thus, cancer cells are more sensitive to inhibition of mitosis than normal cells.

Motor protein

Motor proteins are a class of molecular motors that can move along the cytoplasm of cells. They convert chemical energy into mechanical work by the hydrolysis of ATP. Flagellar rotation, however, is powered by a proton pump. Motor proteins are the driving force behind most active transport of proteins and vesicles in the cytoplasm. Kinesins and cytoplasmic dyneins play essential roles in intracellular transport such as axonal transport and in the formation of the spindle apparatus and the separation of the chromosomes during mitosis and meiosis.

Spindle apparatus

In cell biology, the spindle apparatus is the cytoskeletal structure of eukaryotic cells that forms during cell division to separate sister chromatids between daughter cells. It is referred to as the mitotic spindle during mitosis, a process that produces genetically identical daughter cells, or the meiotic spindle during meiosis, a process that produces gametes with half the number of chromosomes of the parent cell. Besides chromosomes, the spindle apparatus is composed of hundreds of proteins.

Related lectures (32)

Cytoskeleton: Actin Filaments and Microtubules

Explores actin filaments, microtubules, monomers, proteins, dimer formation, and protein aggregation in the cytoskeleton.

Microtubules: Structure, Function, and Regulation

Explores the structure, function, and regulation of microtubules, including forces involved in dynamics and pronuclear migration.

Cytoskeleton and Tensegrity

Explores the structure and functions of the cytoskeleton components for cell support and movement.

Cytoskeleton: Cellular Organization and Function

Covers the composition and functions of the cytoskeleton within cells.

Cellular Cytoskeleton Components