Self-organization of microtubules and motors

F. J. Ndlec, T. Surrey, A. C. Maggs and S. Leibler ()
Additional contact information
F. J. Ndlec: Princeton Unviersity
T. Surrey: Princeton Unviersity
A. C. Maggs: Laboratoire de Physico-Chimie Thorique, Ecole Suprieure de Physique et Chimie Industrielles
S. Leibler: Princeton Unviersity

Nature, 1997, vol. 389, issue 6648, 305-308

Abstract: Abstract Cellular structures are established and maintained through a dynamic interplay between assembly and regulatory processes. Self-organization of molecular components provides a variety of possible spatial structures: the regulatory machinery chooses the most appropriate to express a given cellular function1. Here we study the extent and the characteristics of self-organization using microtubules and molecular motors2 as a model system. These components are known to participate in the formation of many cellular structures, such as the dynamic asters found in mitotic and meiotic spindles3,4. Purified motors and microtubules have previously been observed to form asters in vitro5. We have reproduced this result with a simple system consisting solely of multi-headed constructs of the motor protein kinesin6 and stabilized microtubules. We show that dynamic asters can also be obtained from a homogeneous solution of tubulin and motors. By varying the relative concentrations of the components, we obtain a variety of self-organized structures. Further, by studying this process in a constrained geometry of micro-fabricated glass chambers7, we demonstrate that the same final structure can be reached through different assembly ‘pathways’.

Date: 1997
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/38532 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:nature:v:389:y:1997:i:6648:d:10.1038_38532

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/

DOI: 10.1038/38532

Access Statistics for this article

Nature is currently edited by Magdalena Skipper

More articles in Nature from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().