tubulin
Tubulin in molecular biology can refer either to the tubulin protein superfamily of globular proteins, or one of the member proteins of that superfamily. α- and β-tubulins polymerize into microtubules, a major component of the eukaryotic cytoskeleton. It was discovered and named by Hideo Mōri in 1968. Microtubules function in many essential cellular processes, including mitosis. Tubulin-binding drugs kill cancerous cells by inhibiting microtubule dynamics, which are required for DNA segregation and therefore cell division.
Key facts
- Protein family.Symbol
- Tubulin
- Protein family.Name
- Tubulin
- Protein family.image
- PDB 1ia0 EBI.jpg
- Protein family.caption
- kif1a head-microtubule complex structure in atp-form
- Protein family.Pfam
- PF00091
- Protein family.Pfam_clan
- CL0442
- Protein family.InterPro
- IPR003008
- Protein family.PROSITE
- PDOC00201
- Protein family.SCOP
- 1tub
via Wikipedia infobox
Article
27 sectionsContents
- Characterization
- Function
- Microtubules
- Bacterial microtubules
- DNA segregation
- Cell division
- Prokaryotic division
- Cell shape
- Types
- Eukaryotic
- α-Tubulin
- β-Tubulin
- γ-Tubulin
- δ and ε-Tubulin
- ζ-Tubulin
- Prokaryotic
- BtubA/B
- FtsZ
- TubZ
- CetZ
- Phage tubulins
- "Odinarchaeota" tubulin
- Pharmacology
- Post-translational modifications
- See also
- References
- External links
Tubulin in molecular biology can refer either to the tubulin protein superfamily of globular proteins, or one of the member proteins of that superfamily. α- and β-tubulins polymerize into microtubules, a major component of the eukaryotic cytoskeleton. It was discovered and named by Hideo Mōri in 1968. Microtubules function in many essential cellular processes, including mitosis. Tubulin-binding drugs kill cancerous cells by inhibiting microtubule dynamics, which are required for DNA segregation and therefore cell division.
In eukaryotes, there are six members of the tubulin superfamily, although not all are present in all species. Both α and β tubulins have a mass of around 50 kDa and are thus in a similar range compared to actin (with a mass of ~42 kDa). In contrast, tubulin polymers (microtubules) tend to be much bigger than actin filaments due to their cylindrical nature.