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Taxol causes rapid gross structural rearrangement of a native microtubule bundle
Author(s) -
Hunt Cherryl,
Stebbings Howard
Publication year - 1994
Publication title -
cell biochemistry and function
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.933
H-Index - 61
eISSN - 1099-0844
pISSN - 0263-6484
DOI - 10.1002/cbf.290120307
Subject(s) - microtubule , tubulin , cytoskeleton , biophysics , chemistry , mitosis , nucleotide , microbiology and biotechnology , biology , biochemistry , cell , gene
Taxol is an anti‐mitotic agent now being used in the treatment of some cancers, although the manner of its interaction with the microtubular components of the cytoskeleton is still not fully characterized. Here we report the effects of taxol upon a huge, naturally occurring and experimentally amenable aggregate of parallel microtubules from the ovaries of hemipteran insects. Within seconds of exposure to taxol, the microtubule aggregate began to twist upon itself. After a few minutes this movement was complete, the drug having brought about a gross rearrangement of the microtubules, involving coiling on a massive scale. The final form assumed by the microtubule array was influenced by pH and by the presence of microtubule‐associated proteins, salt, cations, and both hydrolysable and non‐hydrolysable nucleotides. The possible mechanisms leading to this rapid structural change are considered.