2-[(1-methylpropyl)dithio]-1H-imidazole (IV-2) is a known inhibitor of the thioredoxin system. It causes the oxidation of cysteine residues from both thioredoxin reductase and thioredoxin, with only the latter leading to irreversible inhibition of protein function. Although IV-2 is considered to be the first specific inhibitor of thioredoxin to undergo evaluation in cancer patients (under the n...

Ethanol has been predicted to alter vesicle-based protein traffic in hepatocytes, in part, via a disruption of the microtubule (MT) cytoskeleton. However, information on the effects of chronic ethanol exposure on MT function in vivo is sparse. Therefore the goal of this study was to test for ethanol-induced changes in rat liver tubulin expression, assembly, and cellular organization, using mole...

Microtubules (MTs) polymerize from soluble αβ-tubulin and undergo rapid dynamic transitions to depolymerization at their ends. Microtubule-associated regulator proteins modulate polymerization dynamics in vivo by altering microtubule plus end conformations or influencing αβ-tubulin incorporation rates. Biochemical reconstitution of dynamic MT polymerization can be visualized with total internal...

This paper describes a time-resolved X-ray scattering study of microtubule assembly by synchrotron radiation. The method is complementary to light scattering but allows a better distinction between oligomeric and polymeric assembly states. With an improved rapid temperature jump device, it is shown that temperature-induced microtubule assembly is preceded by prenucleation and nucleation events ...

The dynamic instability of microtubules has long been understood to depend on the hydrolysis of GTP bound to -tubulin, an event stimulated by polymerization and necessary for depolymerization. Crystallographic studies of tubulin show that GTP is bound by -tubulin at the longitudinal dimer-dimer interface and contacts particular -tubulin residues in the next dimer along the protofilament. This s...

Microtubule dynamics and polarity stem from the polymerization of αβ-tubulin heterodimers. Five conserved tubulin cofactors/chaperones and the Arl2 GTPase regulate α- and β-tubulin assembly into heterodimers and maintain the soluble tubulin pool in the cytoplasm, but their physical mechanisms are unknown. Here, we reconstitute a core tubulin chaperone consisting of tubulin cofactors TBCD, TBCE,...

GTP-dependent microtubule polymerization dynamics are required for cell division and are accompanied by domain rearrangements in the polymerizing subunit, -tubulin. Two opposing models describe the role of GTP and its relationship to conformational change in -tubulin. The allosteric model posits that unpolymerized -tubulin adopts a more polymerization-competent conformation upon GTP binding. Th...