Tubulin's terminal tyrosine

Tubulins in C. elegans.

The C.elegans tubulin family is composed of nine α-tubulins, six β-tubulins, and one γ- tubulin. Tubulins are highly conserved, functioning as α-β heterodimers that assemble into microtubules. These cylindrical and ubiquitous components of the cytoskeleton are critical for nearly all cellular and developmental processes. C. elegans has provided a model for the study of microtubules in multiple ...

New tubulins in protozoal parasites

More than 20 years ago, biochemical analysis of the eukaryotic cell cytoskeleton revealed the major component proteins. The heterodimeric (α/β) protein tubulin was defined as the building block of microtubules, assembled in a polar manner into specifically arranged protofilaments in the microtubule wall [1]. The next two members of the tubulin protein superfamily were both discovered by genetic...

Amino terminal tyrosine phosphorylation of human MIXL1

Seven members of the Mix family of paired-type homeoproteins regulate mesoderm/endoderm differentiation in amphibians. In mammals, the MIXL1 (Mix. 1 homeobox [Xenopus laevis]-like gene 1) gene is the sole representative of this family. Unlike the amphibian Mix genes that encode an open reading frame of >300 amino acids, mammalian MIXL1 encodes a smaller protein (approximately 230aa). However, m...

Genetic Evidence for Interaction between - and -Tubulins

Submolecular-scale imaging of α-helices and C-terminal domains of tubulins by frequency modulation atomic force microscopy in liquid.

In this study, we directly imaged subnanometer-scale structures of tubulins by performing frequency modulation atomic force microscopy (FM-AFM) in liquid. Individual α-helices at the surface of a tubulin protofilament were imaged as periodic corrugations with a spacing of 0.53 nm, which corresponds to the common pitch of an α-helix backbone (0.54 nm). The identification of individual α-helices ...