ArticleeLife2017
Direct measurement of conformational strain energy in protofilaments curling outward from disassembling microtubule tips.
Article in eLife, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 29 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
29 citing papers in PubMed, 61 citations in OpenAlex.
- Single-molecule microtubule dynamics measurements reveal an intermediate state and clarify the role of nucleotide.Nature communications · 2025Article
- Measuring molecular forces inside living cells using magnetic tweezers.Biophysical reviews · 2025Review
- Mechanisms of microtubule dynamics from single-molecule measurements.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- Microtubule dynamics are defined by conformations and stability of clustered protofilaments.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2025Article
- Article
- Mechanical coupling coordinates microtubule growth.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2023Article
- Measuring and modeling forces generated by microtubules.Biophysical reviews · 2023Review
- The importance of microtubule-dependent tension in accurate chromosome segregation.Frontiers in cell and developmental biology · 2023Review
- Article
- Bending-torsional elasticity and energetics of the plus-end microtubule tip.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2022Article
- Catching the Conformational Wave: Measuring the Working Strokes of Protofilaments as They Curl Outward from Disassembling Microtubule Tips.Methods in molecular biology (Clifton, N.J.) · 2022Article
- Reconstituting Microtubules: A Decades-Long Effort From Building Block Identification to the Generation of Recombinant α/β-Tubulin.Frontiers in cell and developmental biology · 2022Review
- Regulation of microtubule dynamics, mechanics and function through the growing tip.Nature reviews. Molecular cell biology · 2021Review
- Microtubules form by progressively faster tubulin accretion, not by nucleation-elongation.The Journal of cell biology · 2021Article
- Microtubule pivoting enables mitotic spindle assembly in S. cerevisiae.The Journal of cell biology · 2021Article
- The whole is greater than the sum of its parts: at the intersection of order, disorder, and kinetochore function.Essays in biochemistry · 2020Review
- Microtubule instability driven by longitudinal and lateral strain propagation.PLoS computational biology · 2020Article
- Mechanisms of microtubule dynamics and force generation examined with computational modeling and electron cryotomography.Nature communications · 2020Article
- Article
- Microtubules in cell migration.Essays in biochemistry · 2019Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
5 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
Disassembling microtubules can generate movement independently of motor enzymes, especially at kinetochores where they drive chromosome motility. A popular explanation is the 'conformational wave' model, in which protofilaments pull on the kinetochore as they curl outward from a disassembling tip. But whether protofilaments can work efficiently via this spring-like mechanism has been unclear. By modifying a previous assay to use recombinant tubulin and feedback-controlled laser trapping, we directly demonstrate the spring-like elasticity of curling protofilaments. Measuring their mechanical work output suggests they carry ~25% of the energy of GTP hydrolysis as bending strain, enabling them to drive movement with efficiency similar to conventional motors. Surprisingly, a β-tubulin mutant that dramatically slows disassembly has no effect on work output, indicating an uncoupling of disassembly speed from protofilament strain. These results show the wave mechanism can make a major contribution to kinetochore motility and establish a direct approach for measuring tubulin mechano-chemistry.
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Registered trials
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.