Issue 8, 2010
From the journal:

Soft Matter

Engineering the length distribution of microtubules polymerized in vitro

Yolaine Jeune-Smitha  and  Henry Hess*ab  

* Corresponding authors

a Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA

b Department of Biomedical Engineering, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA
E-mail: hh2374@columbia.edu
Fax: +1 212-854-7749
Tel: +1 212-854-7749

Abstract

Microtubules polymerized in vitro and stabilized with paclitaxel (taxol) serve as central components of hybrid nanodevices and in vitro motility assays. A uniform microtubule length is desirable, however, the stochastic assembly process results in significant polydispersity. The microtubule length distribution can be manipulated by growth conditions and post-processing (e.g. shearing). Using fluorescence microscopy, the length distribution is measured and shown to be a generalized Schulz distribution due to the independent and asymmetric growth from both ends. This situation can also arise for other cytoskeletal filaments, including actin filaments. Furthermore, exposure to shear flow is shown to reduce the average microtubule length but does not reduce the polydispersity index. Likewise, annealing of microtubules increases average length but does not reduce polydispersity. Obtaining reliable and uniform results from stochastic molecular processes is a challenge for nanotechnology and synthetic biology.

Graphical abstract: Engineering the length distribution of microtubules polymerized in vitro

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Article information

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1039/B919488F
Article type
Paper
Submitted
18 Sep 2009
Accepted
25 Jan 2010
First published
22 Feb 2010

Soft Matter, 2010,6, 1778-1784

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Engineering the length distribution of microtubules polymerized in vitro

Y. Jeune-Smith and H. Hess, Soft Matter, 2010, 6, 1778 DOI: 10.1039/B919488F

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