ArticleCurrent biology : CB2007
Microtubule assembly dynamics at the nanoscale.
Article in Current biology : CB, 2007. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 97 papers.
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Who cites it
97 citing papers in PubMed.
- Measuring molecular forces inside living cells using magnetic tweezers.Biophysical reviews · 2025Review
- Estradiol pauses microtubule growth without increased incidence of catastrophe events.Communications biology · 2025Article
- EB3-informed dynamics of the microtubule stabilizing cap during stalled growth.Biophysical journal · 2025Article
- No observable non-thermal effect of microwave radiation on the growth of microtubules.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- Measuring and modeling forces generated by microtubules.Biophysical reviews · 2023Review
- Phase separation of +TIP networks regulates microtubule dynamics.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2023Article
- Tubulin Cytoskeleton in Neurodegenerative Diseases-not Only Primary Tubulinopathies.Cellular and molecular neurobiology · 2023Review
- Dynamic microtubules slow down during their shrinkage phase.Biophysical journal · 2023Article
- Beyond the GTP-cap: Elucidating the molecular mechanisms of microtubule catastrophe.BioEssays : news and reviews in molecular, cellular and developmental biology · 2023Article
- Article
- Stochastic model of T cell repolarization during target elimination (II).Biophysical journal · 2022Article
- Quantification of microtubule stutters: dynamic instability behaviors that are strongly associated with catastrophe.Molecular biology of the cell · 2022Article
- Kinesin-14 motors participate in a force balance at microtubule plus-ends to regulate dynamic instability.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2022Article
- Viscoelastic parameterization of human skin cells characterize material behavior at multiple timescales.Communications biology · 2022Article
- Polyvalent design in the cGAS-STING pathway.Seminars in immunology · 2021Review
- Molecular mechanisms underlying microtubule growth dynamics.Current biology : CB · 2021Review
- Tau Avoids the GTP Cap at Growing Microtubule Plus-Ends.iScience · 2020Article
- Dynamic Instability from Non-equilibrium Structural Transitions on the Energy Landscape of Microtubule.Cell systems · 2020Article
- Mechanisms of microtubule dynamics and force generation examined with computational modeling and electron cryotomography.Nature communications · 2020Article
- Article
37 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
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5 authors.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundThe labile nature of microtubules is critical for establishing cellular morphology and motility, yet the molecular basis of assembly remains unclear. Here we use optical tweezers to track microtubule polymerization against microfabricated barriers, permitting unprecedented spatial resolution.
resultsWe find that microtubules exhibit extensive nanometer-scale variability in growth rate and often undergo shortening excursions, in some cases exceeding five tubulin layers, during periods of overall net growth. This result indicates that the guanosine triphosphate (GTP) cap does not exist as a single layer as previously proposed. We also find that length increments (over 100 ms time intervals, n = 16,762) are small, 0.81 +/- 6.60 nm (mean +/- standard deviation), and very rarely exceed 16 nm (about two dimer lengths), indicating that assembly occurs almost exclusively via single-subunit addition rather than via oligomers as was recently suggested. Finally, the assembly rate depends only weakly on load, with the average growth rate decreasing only 2-fold as the force increases 7-fold from 0.4 pN to 2.8 pN.
conclusionsThe data are consistent with a mechanochemical model in which a spatially extended GTP cap allows substantial shortening on the nanoscale, while still preventing complete catastrophe in most cases.
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.