ArticleThe Journal of cell biology2021
Microtubules form by progressively faster tubulin accretion, not by nucleation-elongation.
Article in The Journal of cell biology, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 9 papers.
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Who cites it
9 citing papers in PubMed.
- Conformational Regulation of Vertebrate γ-Tubulin Ring Complexes by CM1 Proteins.Cytoskeleton (Hoboken, N.J.) · 2025Article
- FGF-Mediated Axon Guidance: Role of Downstream Signaling Pathways in Cytoskeletal Control.Cells · 2025Review
- Modulating the Curvature of Protein Self-Assembled Spiral Nanotubules.ACS applied materials & interfaces · 2025Article
- Abl2 repairs microtubules and phase separates with tubulin to promote microtubule nucleation.Current biology : CB · 2023Article
- γ-Tubulin in microtubule nucleation and beyond.Frontiers in cell and developmental biology · 2022Review
- γ-Tubulin Complexes and Fibrillar Arrays: Two Conserved High Molecular Forms with Many Cellular Functions.Cells · 2021Review
- XMAP215 and γ-tubulin additively promote microtubule nucleation in purified solutions.Molecular biology of the cell · 2020Article
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Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Microtubules are dynamic polymers that play fundamental roles in all eukaryotes. Despite their importance, how new microtubules form is poorly understood. Textbooks have focused on variations of a nucleation-elongation mechanism in which monomers rapidly equilibrate with an unstable oligomer (nucleus) that limits the rate of polymer formation; once formed, the polymer then elongates efficiently from this nucleus by monomer addition. Such models faithfully describe actin assembly, but they fail to account for how more complex polymers like hollow microtubules assemble. Here, we articulate a new model for microtubule formation that has three key features: (1) microtubules initiate via rectangular, sheet-like structures that grow faster the larger they become; (2) the dominant pathway proceeds via accretion, the stepwise addition of longitudinal or lateral layers; and (3) a "straightening penalty" to account for the energetic cost of tubulin's curved-to-straight conformational transition. This model can quantitatively fit experimental assembly data, providing new insights into biochemical determinants and assembly pathways for microtubule nucleation.
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Registered trials
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