Fluctuating Motor Forces Bend Growing Microtubules
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12195_2013_Article_281.pdf
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Author(s)
Shekhar, Nandini
Neelam, Srujana
Wu, Jun
Ladd, Anthony J. C.
Dickinson, Richard B.
Lele, Tanmay P.
Date Issued
May 2013
Journal
Cellular and Molecular Bioengineering
Publisher
Springer US
Citation
Shekhar, Nandini, Srujana Neelam, Jun Wu, Anthony J. C. Ladd, Richard B. Dickinson, and Tanmay P. Lele. “Fluctuating Motor Forces Bend Growing Microtubules.” Cellular and Molecular Bioengineering 6, no. 2 (May 22, 2013): 120–129.
Version
Author's final manuscript
Abstract
Despite their rigidity, microtubules in living cells bend significantly during polymerization resulting in greater curvature than can be explained by thermal forces alone. However, the source of the non-thermal forces that bend growing microtubules remains obscure. We analyzed the motion of microtubule tips in NIH-3T3 fibroblasts expressing EGFP-EB1, a fluorescent +TIP protein that specifically binds to the growing ends of microtubules. We found that dynein inhibition significantly reduced the deviation of the growing tip from its initial trajectory. Inhibiting myosin modestly reduced tip fluctuations, while simultaneous myosin and dynein inhibition caused no further decrease in fluctuations compared to dynein inhibition alone. Our results can be interpreted with a model in which dynein linkages play a key role in generating and transmitting fluctuating forces that bend growing microtubules.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Biological Engineering
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Article is made available in accordance with the publisher's policy and may be subject to US copyright law. Please refer to the publisher's site for terms of use.
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DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1007/s12195-013-0281-z
