Evidence map›Paper›PMID 32077153›Full record

ArticleProtein science : a publication of the Protein Society2020

Insights into allosteric control of microtubule dynamics from a buried β-tubulin mutation that causes faster growth and slower shrinkage.

Xuecheng Ye, Tae Kim, Elisabeth A Geyer, Luke M Rice

Open access · greenAbstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Protein science : a publication of the Protein Society, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 12 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
12citing papers in PubMed
0.6field-weighted citation impact, top 39% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

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.

2 · The registry

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.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

12 citing papers in PubMed, 13 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Article
  2. Article
  3. Mechanisms of microtubule dynamics from single-molecule measurements.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025
    Article
  4. Microtubule dynamics are defined by conformations and stability of clustered protofilaments.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2025
    Article
  5. Structural switching of tubulin in the microtubule lattice.Biochemical Society transactions · 2025
    Review
  6. Article
  7. Article
  8. Article
  9. Review
  10. Article
  11. Article
  12. Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

4 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.

Xuecheng YeUT Southwestern Medical Center, Departments of Biophysics and Biochemistry, Dallas, Texas, USA.
Tae KimUT Southwestern Medical Center, Departments of Biophysics and Biochemistry, Dallas, Texas, USA.
Elisabeth A GeyerUT Southwestern Medical Center, Departments of Biophysics and Biochemistry, Dallas, Texas, USA.
Luke M RiceUT Southwestern Medical Center, Departments of Biophysics and Biochemistry, Dallas, Texas, USA.ORCID 0000-0001-6551-3307
Southwestern Medical Center · US

Funding

Molecular Biophysics Predoctoral Training ProgramT32GM008297 · NIGMS · UT SOUTHWESTERN MEDICAL CENTER · PI CHOOK, YUH MIN · 1989 to 2018
$2.4M
NIGMS NIH HHS T32 GM008297NIH HHS T32-GM008297
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

αβ-tubulin subunits cycle through a series of different conformations in the polymer lattice during microtubule growing and shrinking. How these allosteric responses to different tubulin:tubulin contacts contribute to microtubule dynamics, and whether the contributions are evolutionarily conserved, remains poorly understood. Here, we sought to determine whether the microtubule-stabilizing effects (slower shrinking) of the β:T238A mutation we previously observed using yeast αβ-tubulin would generalize to mammalian microtubules. Using recombinant human microtubules as a model, we found that the mutation caused slow microtubule shrinking, indicating that this effect of the mutation is indeed conserved. However, unlike in yeast, β:T238A human microtubules grew faster than wild-type and the mutation did not appear to attenuate the conformational change associated with guanosine 5'-triphosphate (GTP) hydrolysis in the lattice. We conclude that the assembly-dependent conformational change in αβ-tubulin can contribute to determine the rates of microtubule growing as well as shrinking. Our results also suggest that an allosteric perturbation like the β:T238A mutation can alter the behavior of terminal subunits without accompanying changes in the conformation of fully surrounded subunits in the body of the microtubule.

Indexed as

MutationAllosteric RegulationHumansMicrotubulesModels, MolecularProtein SubunitsRecombinant ProteinsTubulinProtein SubunitsRecombinant ProteinsTubulin

Identifiers

PMID32077153
PMCPMC7255507
OpenAlexW3008893504

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

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.