Little is known about the electrostatic/dynamic properties of microtubules, which are considered to underlie their electrostatic interactions with various proteins such as motor proteins, microtubule-associated proteins, and microtubules themselves (lateral association of microtubules). To measure the dielectric properties of microtubules, we developed an experiment system in which the electroo...

Microtubules are filamentous polar polymers with plus and minus ends. This polarity plays a crucial role in a variety of cellular functions such as chromosome movement and organelle transport. To examine the relationship between the growth polarity of microtubules and guanine nucleotide dependence, we polymerized microtubules from axonemes of sea urchin sperm flagella either with GTP or with GT...

Kinetochore microtubules are known to be differentially stable to a variety of microtubuie depolymerization agents compared to the non-kinetochore polar microtubules, but the dynamics of microtubuie attachment to the kinetochore is currently controversial. We have examined the stability of kinetochore microtubules in metaphase PtKx spindles at 23 °C when microtubuie assembly is abruptly blocked...

We have probed the relationship between tubulin posttranslational modification and microtubule stability, using a variation of the antibody-blocking technique. In human retinoblastoma cells we find that acetylated and detyrosinated microtubules represent congruent subsets of the cells' total microtubules. We also find that stable microtubules defined as those that had not undergone polymerizati...