Regensburg 2025 – wissenschaftliches Programm
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BP: Fachverband Biologische Physik
BP 11: Cytoskeleton
BP 11.2: Vortrag
Dienstag, 18. März 2025, 10:00–10:15, H44
Buckling action of molecular motors damages microtubules beyond self-repair — •Shweta Nandakumar1, Jonas Bosche1, Morgan Gazzola2, Mirko Wieczorek1, Mona Grünewald1, Manuel Thery2, Reza Shaebani M1, Ludger Santen1, Stefan Diez3, and Laura Schaedel1 — 1Center for Biophysics, Saarland University, Germany — 2IPGG, Paris, France — 3B-CUBE,TUD Dresden. Germany
Microtubules (MTs) are rigid, hollow biopolymers that constitute a key component of the cytoskeleton, essential for cellular processes such as mitosis, intracellular transport, and migration. Despite their large bending rigidity, MTs often adopt highly curved conformations, indicating that they are exposed to significant mechanical forces in cells. These forces typically arise from molecular motor proteins like kinesin.
In this study, we investigated microtubule damage and subsequent self-repair as a result of both bending as well as dynamic buckling using kinesin motor proteins in vitro. We reveal that motor-induced buckling imposes massive damage on MTs, occasionally leading to the renewal of majority of the MT lattice visualised by the incorporation of new tubulin subunits into the damaged regions. We find that at high motor densities, MT damage exceeds self-repair and leads to frequent MT breakage.
Our results highlight the impact of mechanical forces, which significantly speed up MT damage and self-repair, on MT integrity. Our findings provide a framework for understanding how cells maintain MT function under repeated mechanical stress.
Keywords: Cytoskeleton; Microtubules; Kinesin; Buckling; self-repair