Microtubules (MTs) are hollow, nanometer-scale cylinders comprised of globular dimeric tubulin subunits that are involved in a variety of cellular functions, including intracellular trafficking and cell division. Tubulin subunits align end-to-end to form linear protofilaments that interact laterally in stabilizing the tubular wall. MTs occur in two types of populations: those undergoing dynamic...

The synthesis of a cyclometallated Pt(II) thiolate carbonyl complex Pt(thpy)(CO)(mts), (thpy = 2-(2'-thienyl)-pyridinate, mts = methylthiosalicylate) is reported. A combination of emission and time-resolved infrared (TRIR) techniques revealed for both Pt(thpy)(CO)(mts) and its chloride analogue Pt(thpy)(CO)Cl the predominant intra 2-(2'-thienyl)-pyridinate 3pi pi* character of the lowest electr...

Increasing cost pressures have led supply chain managers to focus on running increasingly lean and efficient supply chains, with minimal inventory. Indeed, more and more firms are relying on pull or make-toorder (MTO) supply chains to minimize cost and waste. At the same time, increasing competitive pressures are leading to an increased emphasis on customer service. An important element of cust...

A microtubule (MT) is a hollow tube of approximately 25 nm diameter. The two ends of the tube are dissimilar and are designated as ‘plus’ and ‘minus’ ends. Motivated by the collective push and pull exerted by a bundle of MTs during chromosome segregation in a living cell, we have developed here a much simplified theoretical model of a bundle of parallel dynamic MTs. The plusend of all the MTs i...

In neurons, microtubules (MTs) span the length of both axons and dendrites, and the molecular motors use these intracellular 'highways' to transport diverse cargo to the appropriate subcellular locations. Whereas axonal MTs are organized such that the plus-end is oriented out from the cell body, dendrites exhibit a mixed MTs polarity containing both minus-end-out and plus-end-out MTs. The molec...

Multiple formins regulate microtubule (MT) arrays, but whether they function individually or in a common pathway is unknown. Lysophosphatidic acid (LPA) stimulates the formation of stabilized detyrosinated MTs (Glu MTs) in NIH3T3 fibroblasts through RhoA and the formin mDia1. Here we show that another formin, INF2, is necessary for mDia1-mediated induction of Glu MTs and regulation of MT dynami...

Interactions between microtubules (MTs) and filamentous actin (f-actin) are involved in directed cell locomotion, but are poorly understood. To test the hypothesis that MTs and f-actin associate with one another and affect each other's organization and dynamics, we performed time-lapse dual-wavelength spinning-disk confocal fluorescent speckle microscopy (FSM) of MTs and f-actin in migrating ne...

Background: Metallothionein (MT) is a multifunctional protein playing important roles in homeostatic regulation and detoxification of metals. Mollusk species have been considered as useful sentinel platforms for MT-based biomarker approaches, and they have been reported to display an extraordinary structural diversity of MT proteins. However, potential diversity of molluskan MTs has not been fu...

Inhibition of kinesin-5, a mitotic motor protein also expressed in neurons, causes axons to grow faster as a result of alterations in the forces on microtubules (MTs) in the axonal shaft. Here, we investigate whether kinesin-5 plays a role in growth-cone guidance. Growth-cone turning requires that MTs in the central (C-) domain enter the peripheral (P-) domain in the direction of the turn. We f...

Time-dependent natural phenomena and artificial processes can often be quantitatively expressed as multivariate time series (MTS). As in any other process of knowledge extraction from data, the analyst can benefit from the exploration of the characteristics of MTS through data visualization. This visualization often becomes difficult to interpret when MTS are modelled using nonlinear techniques...