In Tetrahymena, at least 17 distinct microtubule structures are assembled from a single primary sequence type of alpha- and beta-tubulin heterodimer, precluding distinctions among microtubular systems based on tubulin primary sequence isotypes. Tetrahymena tubulins also are modified by several types of posttranslational reactions including acetylation of alpha-tubulin at lysine 40, a modificati...

Assembly-competent tubulin was purified from the cytoplasm of unfertilized and parthogenetically activated oocytes, and from isolated meiotic spindles of the surf clam, Spisula solidissima. At 22 degrees C or 37 degrees C, Spisula tubulin assembled into 48-51-nm macrotubules during the first cycle of polymerization and 25-nm microtubules during the third and subsequent cycles of assembly. Macro...

Class III beta-tubulin has been discovered as a marker of early phases of neuronal differentiation in developmental conditions, as well as in different tumours of neuronal origin. More recently, the expression of class III beta-tubulin molecule has been described as a marker of different types of malignant epithelial tumours. This study attempts to compare the immunostaining features of two dif...

Advanced stage neuroblastoma has a poor clinical outcome and microtubule-destabilizing agents, such as the Vinca alkaloids, are an important component in the treatment of this childhood cancer. Vinca alkaloids bind to beta-tubulin on the alpha/beta-tubulin heterodimer and disrupt microtubule dynamics, leading to cell death. To date, studies examining the contribution of microtubules and associa...

The early Caenorhabditis elegans embryo contains abundant transcripts for two alpha- and two beta-tubulins, raising the question of whether each isoform performs specialized functions or simply contributes to total tubulin levels. Our identification of two recessive, complementing alleles of a beta-tubulin that disrupt nuclear-centrosome centration and rotation in the early embryo originally su...

Gene products required for mitotic chromosome separation in the fission yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe are described. They have been identified by two distinct strategies of mutant isolation, followed by gene cloning and immunochemical characterization of gene products. The roles of four representative genes, namely nda3+, nuc2+, top2+ and dis2+, encoding beta-tubulin, a nuclear scaffold-like ...

Oligoanions such as sodium triphosphate or GTP prevent and/or reverse vinblastine-induced polymerization of tubulin. We now show that the anions of glutamate-rich extreme C termini of tubulin are similarly involved in the regulation of the vinblastine effect. Cleavage of the C termini by limited proteolysis with subtilisin enhances vinblastine-induced tubulin polymerization and abolishes the an...

During study on biodiversity of Penicillium and Talaromyces species occurring on grape berries and raisin in vineyards of East- & West Azarbaijan and Gazvin provinces of Iran, five species of Penicillium and Talaromyces, namely, Penicillium crocicola, P. olsonii, P. sumatrense, Talaromyces atroroseus and T. minioluteus were characterized based on combination of morphological data and β-tubulin ...

To investigate the orientation of alpha- and beta-tubulin heterodimers within microtubules, we cloned a phage display antibody to alpha-tubulin. The N-terminal 100 residues of alpha-tubulin were bacterially expressed and used to select clones from a large repertoire of antibody-expressing phagemid particles. One clone reacted with the expressed alpha-tubulin N terminus and native tubulin dimer ...