The effect of motor-induced shaft dynamics on microtubule stability and length. 2023

Joël Schaer, and Mireia Andreu-Carbó, and Karsten Kruse, and Charlotte Aumeier
Department of Biochemistry, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland; Department of Theoretical Physics, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland.

Control of microtubule abundance, stability, and length is crucial to regulate intracellular transport as well as cell polarity and division. How microtubule stability depends on tubulin addition or removal at the dynamic ends is well studied. However, microtubule rescue, the event when a microtubule switches from shrinking to growing, occurs at tubulin exchange sites along the shaft. Molecular motors have recently been shown to promote such exchanges. Using a stochastic theoretical description, we study how microtubule stability and length depend on motor-induced tubulin exchange and thus rescue. Our theoretical description matches our in vitro experiments on microtubule dynamics in the presence of kinesin-1 molecular motors. Although the overall dynamics of a population of microtubules can be captured by an effective rescue rate, by assigning rescue to exchange sites, we reveal that the dynamics of individual microtubules within the population differ dramatically. Furthermore, we study in detail a transition from bounded to unbounded microtubule growth. Our results provide novel insights into how molecular motors imprint information of microtubule stability on the microtubule network.

UI MeSH Term Description Entries
D008870 Microtubules Slender, cylindrical filaments found in the cytoskeleton of plant and animal cells. They are composed of the protein TUBULIN and are influenced by TUBULIN MODULATORS. Microtubule
D014404 Tubulin A microtubule subunit protein found in large quantities in mammalian brain. It has also been isolated from SPERM FLAGELLUM; CILIA; and other sources. Structurally, the protein is a dimer with a molecular weight of approximately 120,000 and a sedimentation coefficient of 5.8S. It binds to COLCHICINE; VINCRISTINE; and VINBLASTINE. alpha-Tubulin,beta-Tubulin,delta-Tubulin,epsilon-Tubulin,gamma-Tubulin,alpha Tubulin,beta Tubulin,delta Tubulin,epsilon Tubulin,gamma Tubulin
D016547 Kinesins A family of microtubule-associated mechanical adenosine triphosphatases, that uses the energy of ATP hydrolysis to move organelles along microtubules including mitosis, meiosis, and axonal transport. Kinesin,Kinesin Heavy-Chain Protein,Kinesin Light-Chain Protein,Kinesin Light-Chain Proteins,Kinesin Superfamily,Heavy-Chain Protein, Kinesin,Light-Chain Protein, Kinesin,Light-Chain Proteins, Kinesin,Protein, Kinesin Heavy-Chain,Protein, Kinesin Light-Chain,Proteins, Kinesin Light-Chain,Superfamily, Kinesin

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