γ-Tubulin was initially identified as a suppressor of an Aspergillus β-tubulin mutation (Oakley and Oakley, 1989). Highly homologous genes have since been identified in a variety of other eucaryotes (see Tables 1 and 2), and immunofluorescence studies have confirmed that γ-tubulin is expressed in a wide variety of eucaryotic cells. These observations indicate that γ-tubulin is functionally impo...

Microtubules are one of the three major cytoskeletal components in eukaryotic cells. Heterodimers composed of GTP-bound α- and β-tubulin molecules polymerize to form microtubule protofilaments, which associate laterally to form a hollow microtubule. Tubulin has GTPase activity and the GTP molecules associated with β-tubulin molecules are hydrolyzed shortly after being incorporated into the poly...

Many mammalian β-tubulin mutations that confer paclitaxel resistance have been characterized, but little is currently known about the role of α-tubulin mutations in drug resistance. Previous studies using two-dimensional gel electrophoresis showed that α-tubulin mutations occur with a frequency equal to β-tubulin mutations among CHO cells selected for resistance to paclitaxel but the identities...

Human Tubulin Binding Cofactor C (TBCC) is a post-chaperonin involved in the folding and assembly of α- and β-tubulin monomers leading to the release of productive tubulin heterodimers ready to polymerize into microtubules. In this process it collaborates with other cofactors (TBC's A, B, D, and E) and forms a supercomplex with TBCD, β-tubulin, TBCE and α-tubulin. Here, we demonstrate that TBCC...

Centaurin-α₂ is a GTPase-activating protein for ARF (ARFGAP) showing a diffuse cytoplasmic localization capable to translocate to membrane, where it binds phosphatidylinositols. Taking into account that Centaurin-α₂ can localize in cytoplasm and that its cytoplasmatic function is not well defined, we searched for further interactors by yeast two-hybrid assay to investigate its biological functi...

The year 2017 marks the 25th anniversary of the discovery of homologues of tubulin and actin in prokaryotes. Before 1992, it was largely accepted that tubulin and actin were unique to eukaryotes. Then three laboratories independently discovered that FtsZ, a protein already known as a key player in bacterial cytokinesis, had the "tubulin signature sequence" present in all α-, β-, and γ-tubulins....

Haemonchus populations were collected from cattle from mid-western and eastern Southern US (four and six populations, respectively) to determine the relative prevalence of Haemonchus contortus and Haemonchus placei and the frequency of the three isotype-1 β-tubulin polymorphisms associated with benzimidazole resistance. A minimum of 32 individual adult worms were genotyped at position 24 of the...

This work aimed to identify the species distribution of common clinical and environmental isolates of black Aspergilli based on simple restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) analysis of the β-tubulin gene. A total of 149 clinical and environmental strains of black Aspergilli were collected and subjected to preliminary morphological examination. Total genomic DNAs were extracted, and PC...

NS1 of influenza A virus is a key multifunctional protein that plays various roles in regulating viral replication mechanisms, host innate/adaptive immune responses, and cellular signalling pathways. These functions rely on its ability to participate in a multitude of protein-protein and protein-RNA interactions. To gain further insight into the role of NS1, a tandem affinity purification (TAP)...