ArticleBiophysical journal1997
Estimation of the diffusion-limited rate of microtubule assembly.
Article in Biophysical journal, 1997. 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
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.
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.
Who cites it
18 citing papers in PubMed.
- The mitotic spindle protein CKAP2 potently increases formation and stability of microtubules.eLife · 2022Article
- Persistent growth of microtubules at low density.Molecular biology of the cell · 2021Article
- Impact of the 'tubulin economy' on the formation and function of the microtubule cytoskeleton.Current opinion in cell biology · 2021Review
- On the Relationship Between EB-3 Profiles and Microtubules Growth in Cultured Cells.Frontiers in molecular biosciences · 2021Article
- Microtubule Growth Rates Are Sensitive to Global and Local Changes in Microtubule Plus-End Density.Current biology : CB · 2020Article
- Cell Biology: Social Distancing of Microtubule Ends Increases Their Assembly Rates.Current biology : CB · 2020Article
- Introducing variability in targeting the microtubules: Review of current mechanisms and future directions in colchicine therapy.Pharmacology research & perspectives · 2020Review
- Direct observation of individual tubulin dimers binding to growing microtubules.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2019Article
- Watching microtubules grow one tubulin at a time.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2019Article
- Microtubule Plus End Dynamics - Do We Know How Microtubules Grow?: Cells boost microtubule growth by promoting distinct structural transitions at growing microtubule ends.BioEssays : news and reviews in molecular, cellular and developmental biology · 2019Article
- Article
- Polyamine sharing between tubulin dimers favours microtubule nucleation and elongation via facilitated diffusion.PLoS computational biology · 2009Article
- Mathematical modelling and numerical simulation of the morphological development of neurons.BMC neuroscience · 2006Article
- Dynamics of outgrowth in a continuum model of neurite elongation.Journal of computational neuroscience · 2006Article
- Compartment volume influences microtubule dynamic instability: a model study.Biophysical journal · 2006Article
- Gravitational symmetry breaking leads to a polar liquid crystal phase of microtubules in vitro.Journal of biological physics · 2005Article
- Concentration dependence of variability in growth rates of microtubules.Biophysical journal · 2002Article
- Underlying assumptions of developmental models.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 1998Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
1 author.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Microtubule assembly is a complex process with individual microtubules alternating stochastically between extended periods of assembly and disassembly, a phenomenon known as dynamic instability. Since the discovery of dynamic instability, molecular models of assembly have generally assumed that tubulin incorporation into the microtubule lattice is primarily reaction-limited. Recently this assumption has been challenged and the importance of diffusion in microtubule assembly dynamics asserted on the basis of scaling arguments, with tubulin gradients predicted to extend over length scales exceeding a cell diameter, approximately 50 microns. To assess whether individual microtubules in vivo assemble at diffusion-limited rates and to predict the theoretical upper limit on the assembly rate, a steady-state mean-field model for the concentration of tubulin about a growing microtubule tip was developed. Using published parameter values for microtubule assembly in vivo (growth rate = 7 microns/min, diffusivity = 6 x 10(-12) m2/s, tubulin concentration = 10 microM), the model predicted that the tubulin concentration at the microtubule tip was approximately 89% of the concentration far from the tip, indicating that microtubule self-assembly is not diffusion-limited. Furthermore, the gradients extended less than approximately 50 nm (the equivalent of about two microtubule diameters) from the microtubule tip, a distance much less than a cell diameter. In addition, a general relation was developed to predict the diffusion-limited assembly rate from the diffusivity and bulk tubulin concentration. Using this relation, it was estimated that the maximum theoretical assembly rate is approximately 65 microns/min, above which tubulin can no longer diffuse rapidly enough to support faster growth.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
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.