ArticleThe Journal of cell biology1988
Mechanical properties of brain tubulin and microtubules.
Article in The Journal of cell biology, 1988. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 18 papers.
What it found
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Who cites it
18 citing papers in PubMed, 71 citations in OpenAlex.
- Microtubule-Targeting Agents: Advances in Tubulin Binding and Small Molecule Therapy for Gliomas and Neurodegenerative Diseases.International journal of molecular sciences · 2025Review
- Age-dependent viscoelastic characterization of rat brain cortex.Brain multiphysics · 2022Article
- Mechanical Properties of the Cytoskeleton and Cells.Cold Spring Harbor perspectives in biology · 2017Review
- Microtubule Destabilization Paves the Way to Parkinson's Disease.Molecular neurobiology · 2017Review
- Metaphase Spindle Assembly.Biology · 2017Review
- A serial micropipette microfluidic device with applications to cancer cell repeated deformation studies.Integrative biology : quantitative biosciences from nano to macro · 2013Article
- Microtubule alterations occur early in experimental parkinsonism and the microtubule stabilizer epothilone D is neuroprotective.Scientific reports · 2013Article
- Article
- MAP2-mediated in vitro interactions of brain microtubules and their modulation by cAMP.European biophysics journal : EBJ · 2009Article
- GTPase activity, structure, and mechanical properties of filaments assembled from bacterial cytoskeleton protein MreB.Journal of bacteriology · 2006Article
- Anisotropic elastic properties of microtubules.The European physical journal. E, Soft matter · 2005Article
- Aspiration of human neutrophils: effects of shear thinning and cortical dissipation.Biophysical journal · 2001Article
- Viscoelastic properties of f-actin, microtubules, f-actin/alpha-actinin, and f-actin/hexokinase determined in microliter volumes with a novel nondestructive method.Biophysical journal · 1999Article
- Vibrations in microtubules.Journal of biological physics · 1997Article
- Biophysical and functional consequences of receptor-mediated nerve fiber transformation.Biophysical journal · 1997Article
- Bundling of microtubules in transfected cells does not involve an autonomous dimerization site on the MAP2 molecule.Molecular biology of the cell · 1994Article
- Gravitational symmetry breaking in microtubular dissipative structures.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 1992Article
- Viscoelastic properties of vimentin compared with other filamentous biopolymer networks.The Journal of cell biology · 1991Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
4 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
We measured the elasticity and viscosity of brain tubulin solutions under various conditions with a cone and plate rheometer using both oscillatory and steady shearing modes. Microtubules composed of purified tubulin, purified tubulin with taxol and 3x cycled microtubule protein from pig, cow, and chicken behaved as mechanically indistinguishable viscoelastic materials. Microtubules composed of pure tubulin and heat stable microtubule-associated proteins were also similar but did not recover their mechanical properties after shearing like other samples, even after 60 min. All of the other microtubule samples were more rigid after flow orientation, suggesting that the mechanical properties of anisotropic arrays of microtubules may be substantially greater than those of randomly arranged microtubules. These experiments confirm that MAPs do not cross link microtubules. Surprisingly, under conditions where microtubule assembly is strongly inhibited (either 5 degrees or at 37 degrees C with colchicine or Ca++) tubulin was mechanically indistinguishable from microtubules at 10-20 microM concentration. By electron microscopy and ultracentrifugation these samples were devoid of microtubules or other obvious structures. However, these mechanical data are strong evidence that tubulin will spontaneously assemble into alternate structures (aggregates) in nonpolymerizing conditions. Because unpolymerized tubulin is found in significant quantities in the cytoplasm, it may contribute significantly to the viscoelastic properties of cytoplasm, especially at low deformation rates.
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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.