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Promoting microtubule assembly: A hypothesis for the functional significance of the + TIP network
Author(s) -
Gupta Kamlesh K.,
Alberico Emily O.,
Näthke Inke S.,
Goodson Holly V.
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
bioessays
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.175
H-Index - 184
eISSN - 1521-1878
pISSN - 0265-9247
DOI - 10.1002/bies.201400029
Subject(s) - microtubule , biology , microbiology and biotechnology , tubulin , biophysics , computational biology , neuroscience
Regulation of microtubule (MT) dynamics is essential for many cellular processes, but the machinery that controls MT dynamics remains poorly understood. MT plus‐end tracking proteins (+TIPs) are a set of MT‐associated proteins that dynamically track growing MT ends and are uniquely positioned to govern MT dynamics. +TIPs associate with each other in a complex array of inter‐ and intra‐molecular interactions known as the “+TIP network.” Why do so many +TIPs bind to other +TIPs? Typical answers include the ideas that these interactions localize proteins where they are needed, deliver proteins to the cortex, and/or create regulatory pathways. We propose an additional and more mechanistic hypothesis: that +TIPs bind each other to create a superstructure that promotes MT assembly by constraining the structural fluctuations of the MT tip, thus acting as a polymerization chaperone.