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The downside of microtubule stability
June 15, 2009Stalled microtubules might be responsible for some cases of the neurological disorder Charcot-Marie-Tooth (CMT) disease, Tanabe and Takei report in the June 15, 2009 issue of the Journal of Cell Biology (www.jcb.org). A mutant protein makes the microtubules too stable to perform their jobs, the researchers find.
The mutations behind CMT disease slow nerve impulses, reduce their strength, or both. One of these mutations leads to production of faulty dynamin 2, a protein that is crucial for endocytosis but also latches onto microtubules. Tanabe and Takei investigated how defective dynamin 2 hampers cells.
Normal microtubules are continually extending and shrinking. But microtubules from cells that made the faulty version of dynamin 2 were abnormally stable, as measured by how many acetyl groups were attached to them. The researchers also found that blocking normal dynamin 2 with RNAi had the same effect as the mutation, confirming that one of dynamin 2's functions is to promote microtubule turnover.
Removing dynamin 2 shattered the Golgi complex, Tanabe and Takei discovered. Dynamic microtubules help construct the Golgi complex in two ways: they capture the vesicles that combine to form a mature Golgi complex; and they provide a track along which these vesicles can travel to their rendezvous point near the nucleus. By breaking up the Golgi apparatus and then watching the fragments reunite, the researchers found that dynamin 2 was essential for the capture step, not for transportation. Dynamin 2 also clings to microtubules of the mitotic spindle, and the team next wants to determine whether the protein regulates microtuble dynamics during the cell cycle.
Rockefeller University Press
Removing dynamin 2 shattered the Golgi complex, Tanabe and Takei discovered. Dynamic microtubules help construct the Golgi complex in two ways: they capture the vesicles that combine to form a mature Golgi complex; and they provide a track along which these vesicles can travel to their rendezvous point near the nucleus. By breaking up the Golgi apparatus and then watching the fragments reunite, the researchers found that dynamin 2 was essential for the capture step, not for transportation. Dynamin 2 also clings to microtubules of the mitotic spindle, and the team next wants to determine whether the protein regulates microtuble dynamics during the cell cycle.
Rockefeller University Press
Microtubules Current Events and Microtubules News RSSTrial of new treatment for advanced melanoma shows rapid shrinking of tumors
Researchers have made significant advances in the treatment of metastatic malignant melanoma - one of the most difficult cancers to treat successfully once it has started to spread.
Newly Discovered Mechanism in Cell Division has Implications for Understanding Aberrant Chromosome's Role in Cancer, According to Penn Study
"A biologist, a physicist, and a nanotechnologist walk into a ..." sounds like the start of a joke. Instead, it was the start of a collaboration that has helped to decipher a critical, but so far largely unstudied, phase of how cells divide.
Researchers identify new function for protein missing in Duchenne muscular dystrophy
Researchers at the University of Minnesota and National Institutes of Health have identified a new function for the protein missing in people with the most common and ultimately lethal form of childhood muscular dystrophy.
EphA2-targeted therapy delivers chemo directly to ovarian cancer cells
With a novel therapeutic delivery system, a research team led by scientists at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center has successfully targeted a protein that is over-expressed in ovarian cancer cells.
Advance in understanding cellulose synthesis
Cellulose is a fibrous molecule that makes up plant cell walls, gives plants shape and form and is a target of renewable, plant-based biofuels research.
Slicing chromosomes leads to new insights into cell division
By using ultrafast laser pulses to slice off pieces of chromosomes and observe how the chromosomes behave, biomedical engineers at the University of Michigan have gained pivotal insights into mitosis, the process of cell division.
Motor proteins may be vehicles for drug delivery
Specialized motor proteins that transport cargo within cells could be turned into nanoscale machines for drug delivery, according to bioengineers.
Mechanism of Alzheimer's suggests combination therapy needed
Researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago College of Medicine have discovered a mode of action for mysterious but diagnostic protein snarls found in the brains of Alzheimer's patients that suggests a one-two punch of therapy may be needed to combat the neurodegenerative disease.
Molecule tracking reveals mechanism of chromosome separation in dividing cells
University of Washington (UW) researchers are helping to write the operating manual for the nano-scale machine that separates chromosomes before cell division.
Structural polymorphism of 441-residue Tau at single residue resolution
Worldwide almost 30 million suffer from Alzheimer's disease, an irreversible, neurodegenerative condition that is eventually fatal.
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