ArticleGenome biology and evolution2014
Six subgroups and extensive recent duplications characterize the evolution of the eukaryotic tubulin protein family.
Article in Genome biology and evolution, 2014. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 77 papers.
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77 citing papers in PubMed, 148 citations in OpenAlex.
- Investigating the Function of C‑Terminal Tails of Human Tubulin Isotypes in the Motility Regulation of Cytoplasmic Dynein.ACS omega · 2026Article
- Tubulin glutamylation: a key regulator of flagella, cilia, centrosomes, and disease pathways.Journal of biomedical science · 2026Review
- Tubulin post-translational modifications are conserved during land plant evolution.BMC plant biology · 2026Article
- Disrupting VDAC1-tubulin interaction uncovers crosstalk between mitochondrial and microtubule functions with implication to cancer therapy.Cellular and molecular life sciences : CMLS · 2026Article
- Role of α-tubulin helix 11' in heterodimer conformation and microtubule dynamics.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Emerging Roles of Tubulin Isoforms and Their Post-Translational Modifications in Microtubule-Based Transport and Cellular Functions.Biomolecules · 2026Review
- Cytoskeleton-mediated autophagy regulation in neuroimmune contexts: molecular mechanisms and functional perspectives.Frontiers in immunology · 2026Review
- Article
- Delta tubulin stabilizes male meiotic kinetochores and aids microtubule remodeling and fertility.The Journal of cell biology · 2025Article
- Peptides Derived from α-Tubulin Induce Functional T Regulatory Cells.International journal of molecular sciences · 2025Article
- Microtubule-Targeting Agents: Advances in Tubulin Binding and Small Molecule Therapy for Gliomas and Neurodegenerative Diseases.International journal of molecular sciences · 2025Review
- Hypothesis that ancestral eukaryotes sexually proliferated without kinetochores or mitosis.Journal of cell science · 2025Article
- Targeting TUBG1 in RB1-negative tumors.FASEB journal : official publication of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology · 2025Article
- Whole-exome sequencing in Saudi colorectal cancer patients reveals distinct mutational patterns and population specific pathogenic variants.Frontiers in oncology · 2025Article
- Review
- Complex evolutionary patterns within the tubulin gene family of ciliates, unicellular eukaryotes with diverse microtubular structures.BMC biology · 2024Article
- Actomyosin organelle functions of SPIRE actin nucleators precede animal evolution.Communications biology · 2024Article
- Genome-wide identification and evolution of the tubulin gene family in Camelina sativa.BMC genomics · 2024Article
- Epsilon tubulin is an essential determinant of microtubule-based structures in male germ cells.EMBO reports · 2024Article
- Balancing Act: Tubulin Glutamylation and Microtubule Dynamics inMicroorganisms · 2024Review
17 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
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7 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Tubulins belong to the most abundant proteins in eukaryotes providing the backbone for many cellular substructures like the mitotic and meiotic spindles, the intracellular cytoskeletal network, and the axonemes of cilia and flagella. Homologs have even been reported for archaea and bacteria. However, a taxonomically broad and whole-genome-based analysis of the tubulin protein family has never been performed, and thus, the number of subfamilies, their taxonomic distribution, and the exact grouping of the supposed archaeal and bacterial homologs are unknown. Here, we present the analysis of 3,524 tubulins from 504 species. The tubulins formed six major subfamilies, α to ζ. Species of all major kingdoms of the eukaryotes encode members of these subfamilies implying that they must have already been present in the last common eukaryotic ancestor. The proposed archaeal homologs grouped together with the bacterial TubZ proteins as sister clade to the FtsZ proteins indicating that tubulins are unique to eukaryotes. Most species contained α- and/or β-tubulin gene duplicates resulting from recent branch- and species-specific duplication events. This shows that tubulins cannot be used for constructing species phylogenies without resolving their ortholog-paralog relationships. The many gene duplicates and also the independent loss of the δ-, ε-, or ζ-tubulins, which have been shown to be part of the triplet microtubules in basal bodies, suggest that tubulins can functionally substitute each other.
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