Berlin 2024 – scientific programme
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BP: Fachverband Biologische Physik
BP 28: Cytoskeleton
BP 28.9: Talk
Thursday, March 21, 2024, 12:15–12:30, H 2032
Lattice dynamics in microtubules: Theoretically exploring the dual effects of Tau — Subham Biswas1, Rahul Grover2, Cordula Reuther2, Mona Grünwald1, •Karin John3, Stefan Diez2, and Laura Schaedel1 — 1Saarland University, Saarbrücken, Germany — 2TU Dresden, Germany — 3Liphy, CNRS/Université Grenoble-Alpes, Grenoble, France
Microtubules are key structural elements of living cells that are crucial for cell division, intracellular transport and motility. They are dynamic polymers, which grow and shrink by addition and removal of tubulin dimers at their extremities. Within the microtubule shaft, dimers adopt a densely packed and highly ordered crystal-like lattice structure, which is generally not considered to be dynamic. Recent experiments have shown that microtubules exhibit a lattice dynamics far away from the extremities. This dynamics manifests itself as localized incorporation of free tubulin into the microtubule shaft. Tubulin incorporation into the microtubule lattice can occur either spontaneously or facilitated by microtubule associated proteins such as molecular motors and severing enzymes. The neuronal protein Tau is the latest addition to the growing number of molecules known to stimulate turnover of the MT lattice. However, the origin and underlying mechanisms of Tau stimulated lattice turnover is yet unknown, since Tau is rather known to stabilize the MT lattice. Here, we theoretically explore potential mechanisms of Tau stimulated lattice turnover, consistent with experimental observations.
Keywords: Microtubules; Microtubule associated proteins; Lattice dynamics; Defects; Tau