Scientists from the Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB) in Barcelona have discovered that the ch-TOG protein is essential for the building and maintenance of… skeletal cells and to promote the formation of microtubules when the cell is not dividing.
Microtubules are cellular fibers that are part of the cell’s skeleton cytoskeleton. They are needed for cells to maintain their shape, function, and ability to divide. Microtubules are fibers made up of thousands of units of a protein called microtubules tubulin It grows in length, incorporating new units of tubulin.
Microtubules are cellular fibers that form part of the cell’s skeleton, called the cytoskeleton.
Research published by the journal Nature Communicationsled Jens Ludersand discovered a key role for the ch-TOG protein in initiating the formation of microtubules at the stage of the cell cycle in which cells spend most of their time, that is, interphase.
Cell growth and division
the the cellular cycle It is a series of stages that lead to the cell’s growth and division into two daughter cells, and the period between when the cell is just formed and when it is ready to divide is known as interphase.
In interphase, the cytoskeleton remains essential and has a very active role in maintaining cell functions.
According to the authors, this work supports that this protein is key in the initiation and formation of new microtubule fibers in humans.
“The role of the ch-TOG protein in stimulating microtubule growth during cell division has been described previously, but its critical importance at the interface in human cells, that is, when cells are not dividing, was not known until now.” Our work reveals that in addition to contributing to the continued growth of the ends of microtubules, this protein is also key to initiating the formation of these fibrils,” Luders explains.
For a long time, the scientific community considered the main function of ch-TOG to be the elongation of microtubules, but this work supports that ch-TOG is also key in the initiation and formation of new microtubule fibers in humans.
“The ch-TOG protein consists of two regions, one that takes in tubulin particles The other joins the microtubules, so that the protein tubulin adds to the fibers and thus grows. What we were able to observe is that the same two regions are also required for ch-TOG to bind to gTURC complexes in centrosomes and to initiate tubulin addition, Thus forming new fibers from scratchhe explains Amer Alifirst author of the article.
Reference:
Amer Ali et al. Microtubule nucleation and centrosome localization of γTuRC in interstitial cells requires ch-TOG. Nature Communications (January 2023).
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