Microtubules are important cellular targets for anticancer therapy because of their key role in mitosis. Microtubule inhibitors (MTI) such as taxanes, vinca alkaloids, and epothilones stabilize or destabilize microtubules, thereby suppressing microtubule dynamics required for proper mitotic function, effectively blocking cell cycle progression and resulting in apoptosis. In spite of their antit...

Aurora B puts chromosomes in their place mall molecule inhibitors of Aurora B activity, characterized by Hauf et al. (page 281) and Ditchfield et al. (page 267), reveal that the mammalian kinase and its budding yeast counterpart, Ipl1, have similar functions. Without Aurora B, mistakes in kinetochore–chromosome interactions go uncorrected. Early evidence of a function for the Aurora family in c...

The detyrosination/retyrosination cycle is the most common post-translational modification of α-tubulin. Removal conserved C-terminal tyrosine α-tubulin by a still elusive tubulin carboxypeptidase, and religation this ligase (TTL), are probably to all eukaryotes. Interestingly, for plants, only candidates qualifying as potential TTL homologs ligase-like 12 proteins. To get insight into biologic...

We demonstrate that two independent mechanisms act on maternally derived cyclin B transcripts to concentrate the transcripts at the posterior pole of the Drosophila oocyte and at the cortex of the syncytial embryo. The cortical accumulation occurs because the cyclin B transcript is concentrated around nuclei and comigrates with them to the cortex. The perinuclear localisation of the transcript ...

Aurora B puts chromosomes in their place mall molecule inhibitors of Aurora B activity, characterized by Hauf et al. (page 281) and Ditchfield et al. (page 267), reveal that the mammalian kinase and its budding yeast counterpart, Ipl1, have similar functions. Without Aurora B, mistakes in kinetochore–chromosome interactions go uncorrected. Early evidence of a function for the Aurora family in c...

microtubules are unique cytoskeletal structures that have structural subunits of αβ tubulin. taxol is a typical microtubule stabilizing drug. the epothilones are other natural products with similar mechanism of action totaxol. despite the highly conserved nature of β-tubulin, some organism like saccharomyces cerevesia is resistance to taxol, but sensitive to epothilones. in order to find differ...

background: gp41 of hiv (human immunodeficiency virus) is a protein that mediates fusion between viral and cellular membranes. the agent, t-20, which has been approved for hiv inhibition, can restrain gp41 function in the fusion process; nevertheless, it has disadvantages like instability, high cost of production and injection form to be delivered twice a day. methods: several molecules like nb...

Colchicine and other microtubule-active agents have been found to block the release, stimulated by either thyroid-stimulating hormone or by dibutyryl cyclic adenosine 3':5'-monophosphate, of (131)I from previously (131)I-labeled mouse thyroid glands in vitro. The time and concentration characteristics of these inhibitors are consistent with their actions on microtubules in other systems. [(3)H]...

NIMA-related kinase 6 (NEK6) regulates cellular expansion and morphogenesis through microtubule organizaiton in Arabidopsis thaliana. Loss-of-function mutations in NEK6 (nek6/ibo1) cause ectopic outgrowth and microtubule disorganization in epidermal cells. We recently found that NEK6 forms homodimers and heterodimers with NEK4 and NEK5 to destabilize cortical microtubules possibly by direct bin...