The structure and stability of microtubules

Author

Sept, D. ; Baker, N.A. ; McCammon, J.A.

Author_Institution

Dept. of Biomed. Eng., Washington Univ., St. Louis, MO, USA

Volume

1

fYear

2002

fDate

2002

Abstract

The availability of an atomically-detailed tubulin structure has created new possibilities for investigating many features of microtubule structure and function. Through the use of a newly developed method for large scale electrostatic calculations, we are able to explain several key microtubule properties. This talk will present recent results on microtubule stability, plus and minus end polymerization, as well as the physical basis for the observed helix and seam.

Keywords

bioelectric phenomena; cellular biophysics; electrostatics; free energy; polymerisation; proteins; Brownian dynamics; atomically-detailed tubulin structure; cellular processes; electrostatic interactions; eukaryotic cytoskeleton; free energy calculations; large scale electrostatic calculations; microtubule function; microtubule structure; minus end polymerization; motor proteins; observed helix; plus end polymerization; tubulin dimer; Biochemistry; Biomedical engineering; Chemistry; Electrons; Electrostatics; Large-scale systems; Molecular biophysics; Poisson equations; Polymers; Stability;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Engineering in Medicine and Biology, 2002. 24th Annual Conference and the Annual Fall Meeting of the Biomedical Engineering Society EMBS/BMES Conference, 2002. Proceedings of the Second Joint

ISSN

1094-687X

Print_ISBN

0-7803-7612-9

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/IEMBS.2002.1136845

Filename

1136845